


Fighting Free

by mlein80



Category: The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Abduction, Abuse, Alternate Universe - Human, Break Up, Character Death, Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Gun Violence, Kissing, Past Child Abuse, Reader-Insert, Sex, Violence, Wakes & Funerals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-05-16 01:01:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 22
Words: 44,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5807185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mlein80/pseuds/mlein80
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Klaus Mikaelson has spent the last few years in prison, after being blamed for the death of his mother. Today is the day the prison doors open for him, and you are waiting for him to appear, nervous to finally meet the man you have gotten to know through letters. Will he be as fascinating as you think he is? Will you be able to truly get to know him now you meet him face to face? You know one thing already through his letters... you are in for one hell of a ride. How well do you know the man behind the words?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I am writing this story for the blog showandwrite on Tumblr as a "present" for a follower number milestone. It will be my first large multichapter fanfic, so please, bear with me. The readers have chosen the main character (Klaus Mikaelson), the love interest (A human female reader insert) and the setting (Alternative Universe).  
> Have fun reading!

“Just breathe…”, you told yourself. You were trying to calm yourself down while you sat in your car, the wheel clenched in your hands. You were just here to pick up Klaus, finally meet him in real life. That’s all. The worst thing that could happen was that you didn’t have the click you seemed to have when you were writing. In that case you’d bring him home, and that was it... no harm done. But that wasn’t what you body made you believe. You were nervous, more nervous than ever. And that said something, in your case.

You glanced in the direction of the unfriendly gates, but they hadn’t opened yet. Of course not, you had arrived here an hour early, and no matter how often you had checked your phone to see if it was twelve already, the minutes didn’t seem to want to pass.

Some guards had already shot you curious looks, but as long as you stayed on the public road, there wasn’t anything they could do about your presence here.

“You’re Klaus?” You were rehearsing what you were going to say to him when you finally met him, but everything seemed stupid, trivial. You were sure you would recognize him. You had seen a few pictures over the last two years, and somehow you had the feeling you would recognize him anywhere already. _But what if you don’t?_ Your nerves were taking over, and you checked your phone again. It would be so much easier if he would just turn up.

11:37, the screen said, so that meant there were still twenty three minutes left. Twenty three minutes to bite your nails, to be nervous about meeting the man you had written letters to for almost three years now, twenty three minutes to start your car and drive away.

Why did you do this? Why were you waiting in front of a prison to pick up a man you never met before? To meet a man who might have killed his mother? –you had never dared to ask in your letters if he had really done it-. Why wasn’t his family here? Your first reaction had been relief, when he wrote you he was getting out, and even when you were surprised when he asked if you would pick him up, you didn’t think twice to do it. It was only two days later that you realized that even when his crime had been family related, they could at least have the decency to pick him up.

He had served his time, hadn’t he? He had earned his freedom by now. Especially his family should be able to see that? But he already wrote you they weren’t coming. He was nervous to meet them again, and that is why he had asked you.

So here you were, waiting for the last twenty one minutes to pass. You leaned back, closing your eyes, trying to relax. You couldn’t very well get out of this car with shaking legs. That would look stupid, and the last thing you wanted was looking stupid in front of him. Even though you didn’t know him at all. Or that was what you were telling yourself. All those letters you exchanged, that should count for something, should it?

11.46. Slowly time progressed, and you just started playing a dumb game on your phone to pass the last fourteen minutes until those gates would open, until Klaus would come out. It didn’t take those whole fourteen minutes to run out of lives, but long enough that you thought it was time to step out of the car, breathe in the fresh air. You leaned against the car until you heard a sound that made you stand upright immediately, doing a few steps towards the gate that suddenly looked different.

Slowly it opened, revealing only one figure, a man, blond curls, eyes exactly as on the last photo you had gotten from him about a year ago, a bag in his hand.

His hear was longer now, more curled than you remembered, and there was a faint smile on his face when he first looked up to the sky and then around him, a look of surprise on his face, as if he couldn’t believe he could really go wherever he wanted to.

You stepped towards him. “Klaus?” You looked at him when his head snapped in your reaction, and one moment you were afraid how he would react. One moment you feared that you had read his letter wrong, that it was totally wrong to show up here today.

And then his smile broke really through, and you knew you had done the right thing. “Y/N? I was so afraid you wouldn’t be here...” He walked towards you, not sure what to do.

You were just as clumsy, and the both of you settled for shaking hands, laughing a bit about how uncomfortable this was feeling. You had the feeling like you already knew him, and on the other hand, you knew you just met.

The man outside the walls could be someone completely different than the man who wrote you the beautiful letters you had been constantly looking forward to. “You have no idea how glad I am that you’re here, love... I’m not sure how good I’d do on finding a bus to get home.”

You looked surprised. “Wouldn’t your family want to pick you up if I hadn’t done it?” You knew what he went to jail for, more or less, at least, and you could understand that his family wasn’t too happy with him right now, but on the other hand... would you leave a brother, a son, just standing here?

“You don’t know them, don’t you?”, he asked, while he followed you to the car. Maybe the street in front of a prison wasn’t the best place to get to know each other, and he looked really eager to get away from the place he had spend so much time. Too much time, probably.

You shook your head. “Can’t say I ever met them, as far as I know. But I have the feeling that’s about to change?” Or you must drop him right in front of the door, but somehow you guessed that was not going to happen. You unlocked the car, gesturing to him to get in. You watched him put his bag –so small, for five years of his live- in the backseat, before you both got into the car. “Where is it?”

He fidgeted a bit with his jacked, apparently slowly getting nervous as well. The address he gave you was surprisingly enough in the best part of town, something you hadn’t really expected, if you were honest. 

“You’re kidding? You come from that rich people area?”, you blurted out once you started driving. “You never wrote me that.”

It would explain why he just told you he would have trouble finding a bus. That was probably something he had never done in his entire life. He shrugged, trying to relax a bit, something that clearly didn’t work. “I never saw much reason to write it to you. It’s not like they’re going to welcome me back with open arms, but I have nowhere else to go.”

You weren’t going to suggest him staying at your place. It was one thing to pick up a convict after he did his time and drop him off at his home, but housing someone you didn’t know? You weren’t planning on doing that. So you just drove, first through the familiar parts of town until the houses became bigger, the lawns were larger, and everything just was much more luxurious than you were used to. Keeping up the conversation wasn’t that easy, with Klaus clearly being nervous and you... well, you didn’t exactly know what you were feeling. Somehow it was familiar, driving in almost silence, and on the other hand there were a thousand things you wanted to ask. Later... if there would be a later, but you had the idea there would be. When you stopped at the address he had given you, you could hardly believe what you were seeing. “Please tell me my navigation got it wrong and this isn’t your house?”

It was big, not a house anymore, but a mansion. Two stories high, with an actual veranda alongside the house. You wouldn’t be surprised if there would be an actual ball room inside, one like you knew from the movies.

Klaus just chuckled. “It’s bloody impressive, isn’t it? Believe me... no matter how big the houses are, there’s bound to be a lot of trouble inside. Probably even more than in a cosy townhouse down town.” He reached back for his bag, before opening the door.

You noticed the slight tremble of his hands before he touched the handle, but he had covered it up already when he stood outside. You followed his example. “I don’t think I should intrude on this...” It was his reunion with his family, you shouldn’t be there... this wasn’t your place.

“Please stay, Y/N. Even when it’s just in the background? I’ve spoken more to you over the last few years than I have to them, and I’m not even completely sure if they let me in.” He slowly started walking towards the impressive front door, and even though you weren’t completely sure what to do, you did follow him.

“I’m going to wait here, ok?” You stood a few feet behind him, close enough to be able to see what was going on, far enough for Klaus’ family to ignore you, if they chose to do so.

He looked back at you, swallowing and nodding. He probably wasn’t even able to say something at this point, so nervous did he look. Then he turned back, straightened his shoulder and rung the doorbell.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus comes back home, meeting his family. Or part of it, at least.

He took a deep breath after he had rung the doorbell. The thick wooden door muffled all sounds coming from inside. He could barely hear if the bell had worked, let alone if there was someone coming to open it. One moment he contemplated just turning around, seeing if he could get by somehow on his own. The only thing stopping him from doing that was the girl standing behind him. It would be cowardice, running away now, and he was no coward. Or so he had to prove. To someone. To her. To himself. To... to the man he refused to think about.

And then the lock clicked, the door opened. Someone was at home. Who would it be? That same man he refused to think about?

His sister, who might forgive him? If there was anyone who would take him back, it would probably be Rebekah, although she had loved their mother very much. But he had always been her anchor, the one she ran to when she had fallen down, when she was scared of the weather. When she was scared of their father.

One if his brothers? Elijah, who he had always looked up to? Finn, who would shut him out immediately, he was quite sure of that. Little Kol, who was probably not that little anymore?

When the door swung open, he looked into the shocked face of his elder brother.

“Niklaus?” Elijah was clearly surprised to see him, not knowing for one moment what to do. No wonder... he hadn’t seen his brother in years, had barely heard from him during that time. “Why didn’t you tell us you would be coming home today?”

Klaus shot an apologetic look over his shoulder to you, before turning back to his brother. “I... didn’t dare to. Besides, I had someone to pick me up from... there.”

You just shrugged. He hadn’t even asked his family? He must have been really afraid of their reaction.

Something that didn’t seem completely justified, judging by the fact that Elijah stepped aside after he had recovered from the shock and invited Klaus in. Then he turned to you. “Come in. We can’t leave someone who brought my brother home standing outside. He offered you his hand. “I’m Elijah, Niklaus’ brother.”

You stepped forward, shaking the hand. “Y/N. I’m sorry, I thought he had written you...”

Elijah smiled slightly. “He didn’t write that often. We might have been quite harsh on him a few years ago, and he took that as a sign we’d rather not have contact at all.”

You decided you kind of liked him. He looked formal, dressed up in a suit, even when he was at home –not that you had any idea what he had planned for the day, of course-, his words carefully chosen, and he moved like he knew exactly what he was doing. You followed Klaus and Elijah inside, looking around, kind of impressed by the sheer size and luxury of it all.

Klaus looked at you, slightly amused, despite of his nerves. “Yes, I know... it can be quite overwhelming if you’ve never been here before. Our... father absolutely insists that the status of our family is visible in our family home.” Something he had always hated. He never really felt part of this family. Something always seemed to be missing.

Elijah closed the door. “Well, luckily for you, our father isn’t home yet. We still have to think out a plan on how to handle him, because you might have been completely wrong about mine and Rebekah’s willingness to see you again, I fear you were right about father.”

You could see how Klaus tensed at the mention of the man, and with the few things you had heard about the Mikaelson’s father, you almost started to become afraid of him already, even when you hadn’t met him yet.

“Rebekah?” Klaus asked his brother, almost forgetting about you. “She’s here?” He looked up the stairs, as if the girl, or woman –you had no idea how old she was- would appear there, just because he said her name. And apparently he wasn’t very wrong. A smile played around his lips when he saw his sister standing there, clearly lured by the noise coming from downstairs.

“Nik?”, she said surprised. “How the bloody hell do you get here? Shouldn’t you be...” She didn’t finish the sentence, but it was clear what she meant.

“Be in jail, you mean?”, Klaus finished what everyone was already thinking. “Do you wish me to be?” He started to become a bit nervous of this welcome, after having Elijah lull him into relative safety. “They didn’t want me anymore, so here I am...”

A big smile appeared on the blonde’s face, and she ran down the stairs, immediately hugging her brother. “Are you out of your mind? Of course I don’t want you to go back there! I’ve missed you. And Elijah too, even when he’s not saying it out loud.” She let go of him, and her face fell a bit. “I just don’t know if you can stay here...

“Nonsense...”, Elijah interrupted here. “Whatever Kol and father might say, we can’t send someone of our blood out. Even when...”

And there it was. The subject they all had so tried to avoid. Klaus wasn’t just one of their blood, he had also been responsible for the death of one of their own. And even though his sister and this brother didn’t let it bother them too much, apparently the family was a lot bigger than that. You walked through the living room, trying to make yourself invisible while the siblings talked among each other, until you encountered a family photo. It was quite clear who the mother had been Klaus had killed, and when you looked at the picture, you couldn’t understand why. She looked quite sweet, to be honest, happy to be surrounded by her family. His father was... imposing, to say it like that. Next to his mother was a dark haired boy, looking like the eldest of the children. A baby was in his mother’s arms, while it was very clear that Rebekah was standing in front of her, as the only girl, strikingly blonde, even then, her hand tightly in that of a blonde boy standing next to her. Klaus, clearly, standing as close to his mother as possible, but far away from his father. Next to Rebekah was another dark haired boy, that could be Elijah, with the hand of a small other boy in his hand. You turned towards the three who were still standing near the door. “With how many siblings are you living her? I mean, I count six on this photo.”

Elijah walked towards you, taking up the photo. “I almost forgot it was here. I think you found Niklaus, Rebekah and me already? The big one next to mother is Finn, the eldest. He moved away after...” he glanced at Klaus and corrected himself. “... a few years ago. Kol is still at school, he had a baseball training, and I don’t expect him home before the evening falls, and Henrik...” He pointed at the baby. “I don’t think that’s a subject for a first meeting, Y/N. He passed away, when he was still a child. It’s a painful subject.”

“I’m sorry...” You hadn’t wanted to intrude on something so personal, but you couldn’t help wanting to know more about the man behind the letters. “I didn’t mean to ask too much. I’m just... curious.”

Elijah nodded, looking over to his brother and sister. “They need some time to catch up, or so it seems. Which gives me the opportunity to ask how you know him? Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad he had someone to pick him up, I just hoped it would be one of us.”

You shifted in your chair, a bit uncomfortable. “We wrote... you know, there are those programs where you can write with prisoners, and somehow I ended up writing with Klaus. He’s a good writer.” You had enjoyed it, maybe a bit too much. “He said you didn’t want to be there. I had no idea that he never asked you, or...”

Elijah held up his hand. “I’m not accusing you, Y/N. Like I said. I am glad you were there, and maybe it was for the better father never knew he would come home. I’m not the one to talk badly about my parents, but...” He never finished his sentence, and somehow you  hoped you’d never meet that man. He already scared you, and you only heard the stories.

Klaus and Rebekah walked over to where the two of you were standing as well, and Klaus leaned against the couch, much more at ease already then when he had entered the house. He did fit here, somehow. His posture had changed, and suddenly he was the man that could possess such wealth. “So...” He said, looking from Elijah to Rebekah. “Now we’re done with the nice welcome home talks, I’m sure the two of you have something more to say?”

Elijah rolled his eyes, while Rebekah walked over to the window, playing with the curtains to hide her insecurity. Elijah spoke first. “Must you ruin this reunion, Niklaus? Yes, I am quite sure there are many things we still need to talk about, not in the least why you had this poor girl believe that none of us would be willing to come and collect you, and thus putting that burden on her, but I hardly think this is the time to do that.”

“Elijah.” You barely heard Rebekah, so focused you were on the confrontation between the brothers.

Nor did Klaus. “Ruin? I would hardly call asking for the truth ruining something. This can’t be all there is, Elijah. We both know that.”

“ELIJAH, NIKLAUS! Listen to me!” This time it was impossible to miss Rebekah’s intrusion, and both the brothers turned to her, annoyed.

“What is it, Rebekah?”, Klaus demanded to know.

Rebekah lifted the curtain, showing a black car parked in front of the house, a man stepping out of it. “Father is home.”               


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus meets his father. It's not pretty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for verbal abuse in this chapter, and the mention of child abuse in the past.

And with those three tiny words, all the tension in the living room was back. Klaus stood up, looking around, as if he was searching for a way to leave. “I should go. I can’t... I can’t face him, ok? Not yet.”

Elijah shook his head, putting his hand on Klaus’ arm. “And then? You want to run for him for the rest of your life? Do you honestly think it will be easier to face him tomorrow, a week from now or even in a year than it will be now? Stay. We want you back, keep that in mind...”

You heard someone turn the key in the lock, and instead of calming you down, the words of Elijah only made you more afraid of the man that was about to enter. If someone as confident as Elijah seemed to think that Klaus’ fear was not something to wave away, how bad was this man? You saw how Klaus did a few steps back, almost hiding behind his brother, but you could already see that that wouldn’t bring much.

When the door opened, it revealed an older man, probably a bit older than your own parents. Blonde hair, piercing blue eyes. And not a shred of warmth in his traits. He put down his briefcase, before removing his coat and only looked in the direction of his children after that. “Rebekah, love. Why aren’t you doing your homework?” He hadn’t noticed you nor Klaus yet, and somehow you wished it could stay that way. It didn’t.

“Father?”, Elijah said when he stepped forward, Klaus tugging on his sleeve not to do it. “We have visitors...”

You actually wanted to hide somewhere when he mentioned you as well, but that was nothing compared to the look on Klaus’ face. You were scared to look at him.

He was so afraid. “Father...”, he mumbled, looking down at his shoes.

You on the other hand watched the man. You saw his expression change from annoyance with Elijah who had interrupted him, to curiosity to who these visitors might be, to a frightening anger when he finally saw his son standing in his living room.

“You?”, he bellowed, stepping forward until he stood right in front of Klaus. “Look at me, boy.” The use of the word boy was humiliating, and judged by the reaction of Klaus, it hadn’t be the first time his father had used that word in this tone. “How dare you enter my house again. Explain yourself.” Mikael didn’t relax, he just stood there, expecting an explanation Klaus probably couldn’t give.

“They let me out...”, was all he managed to say. It wasn’t enough. Not for Mikael, at least.

“They let you out...”, Mikael repeated, sarcastically. “They thought a mere five years was enough punishment for ending the life of your own mother. For murdering my wife!”

Everyone had stepped back a bit, everyone was afraid to focus the attention of Mikael on themselves.

You knew you maybe should do something, but you didn’t dare to. You were scared. Scared of what he would do. You had heard Klaus’ hesitation, Klaus’ wish to get out of here before he would meet his father again, and it wasn’t until know that you completely understood why that had been.

Mikael was able to reduce even the most confident adult to a little child with just one look, with just one word. And that was exactly what he was doing to Klaus right now.

There was nothing left of the man you had picked up only an hour earlier. There was nothing left of the man who had been glad to be reunited with his siblings only a short while ago. The only thing that was left was a child, standing in front of his father, waiting for his judgment. A judgment that would only be negative. It pained you to see it, and you wished you could change something about it. But you couldn’t.

“Father...”, Klaus tried to answer. “They looked over the case, and they thought I have done my time. Elijah welcomed me back, Rebekah welcomed me back, can’t you even tolerate my presence here?”

Mikael looked at his other two children who were present, before his gaze rested on you for a moment.

You wanted to become invisible under that look, but you stepped forward anyway. Maybe it would break the tension a bit if you would introduce yourself. “Mr. Mikaelson?” You regretted doing it the moment he looked at you longer. You weren’t worth his time, that was something you understood very fast. You offered him your hand “I’m Y/N. I’m... I have gotten to know your son a bit over the last few years.”

It did work as a diversion tactic though, because even when he ignored your outstretched hand, he did leave Klaus alone for one moment, stepping towards you. “And did my son tell you what a great son he has been for his mother? Or has he been conveniently leaving out that detail?” He did another step towards you. “Or are you one of those mates he has gotten in that prison they should have kept him locked up for the rest of his life?”

Ok. You did get why Klaus had been afraid to go home. Everyone would have been afraid if this was the kind of welcome you could expect there. Suddenly you felt Elijah’s hand resting on your shoulder, and you had never been more glad to get support, no matter from who it would come.

“Father...”, Klaus’ elder brother interrupted him. “She picked him up and brought him home. He didn’t dare to call one of us. She didn’t have anything to do with it, I hardly think it is fair to take out your anger on her...”

Fair? Since when was anything that was happening here fair? No father should welcome a son home like this, no matter what had happened before. A cold welcome? Fine, you could understand that, but this? The fact that Klaus looked like he expected to be beaten down any minute, literally... the way Mikael managed to make Klaus shrink with every word he said? This went back a lot further than just Klaus ending up in prison.

Mikael looked Elijah in the eye, and you were a bit relieved that he wasn’t focused on you anymore. “So you defend her? Do you also happen to have anything to say for that sad excuse for a brother that you have let into our home?”

You cringed. No one deserved to be spoken about in that way, and you searched for Klaus’ look, wanting to show him not everyone thought like that. But you didn’t manage.

He looked away, probably only seeing his shoes. Probably wishing he was back in his cell, where he might not have the freedom to come and go as he pleased, but did not have to suffer the verbal abuse of someone who should be a safe haven.

Elijah didn’t shrink away under his father’s disapproval. His hand was still on your shoulder, a calming influence, and his voice didn’t tremble when he answered. “I am very much aware of what he has done, father. She was my mother as well, just as Rebekah’s, but you can’t shun him forever for that. He has served his time, he has returned to us, it is up to us to give him a home again. Please father, don’t send him away...”

You were impressed that he managed to stay so collected, so calm. You were grateful that he had saved you, but there was no saving for Klaus. You could read that much on Mikael’s face when he turned back to his son, who was standing there as if he was awaiting judgment. Which he was.

“Your brother asks me to be lenient with you. To give you a place to stay. To welcome you back into the house you have disgraced. To tolerate you here, as you have asked me before.” Mikael clasped his hands behind his back, slowly pacing back and forth in front of Klaus. “What do you think?” He put one hand under Klaus’ chin, forcing him to look him in the eye.

Klaus shuddered for a moment, a clear sign for you that there had been much worse touches in the past than just this one. “Please, father. I have nowhere else to go. I won’t be a burden, I promise...” He had been so proud when you met him. Afraid, yes, but confident. That was all gone, just by the presence of this one man.

Every eye in the room was focused on Mikael now. Rebekah, who had been quiet, seems to beg with her eyes. Elijah had released his grip on your shoulder, but was standing next to you had made clear how he thought, and Klaus... Klaus just wanted to stay, but he didn’t dare to hope for it.

Something you could completely understand. You didn’t even know if you would want to stay under the same roof as the man who could humiliate someone like this.

Mikael shook his head. “Silly boy. Would you honestly think I would house a traitor to my family? Someone I can’t even call my own son?” He walked to the door, opened it, and threw out the bag Klaus had brought with him. “Out. Don’t let me ever see your face again, or I swear to god, I will not hold back anymore. And take your... friend with you. I don’t need anyone associating with scum in my house.”

You felt the blood run to your cheeks, not used to anyone talking to you that way. “I wouldn’t even want to stay here.” You turned to Elijah. “I’m sorry... I... I’ll take him somewhere safe.”

Elijah nodded, quickly taking a card out of the pocket and pressed it in your hand. “Call me, or make him call me. I’ll try to deal with him...”, he said, nodding with his head in the direction of Mikael. “Thank you for taking him here...”

You nodded, pressing Elijah’s hand a bit longer than you should to just accept the card. It was a thank you for being kind, a thank you for standing up for you. “I will. He’ll be fine, don’t worry.” With these words you walked to the door to join Klaus, who was already standing outside, bag in his hand, as a puppy who was just kicked out of the only place he could call home. Which was more or less what had happened.

“Come on...” You walked to the car, beckoning him to come with you. “Your father is a dick. Sorry for ever doubting why you were afraid to go home.”

He followed you, waiting by the car when you opened the door on your side, as if he didn’t know what to do.

You shrugged. “Get in, ok? I’m not going to let you stand here in the cold. You need a place to stay, I have a spare room.” This was something you hadn’t planned to do, something your better judgment wasn’t agreeing with –he was a convict, for heaven’s sake, you only knew him for a bit over an hour-, but you didn’t see another choice. There was no way you would leave him after what you just witnessed. “We’ll get you back on track. You don’t need your father for that. Let’s just prove him wrong.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus needs a place to sleep, so Y/N takes him home. They talk about what happened.

“You can take that room…” You pointed Klaus towards a door that was usually closed, before opening the door to the living room. “Make yourself comfortable... Bathroom is over there, living room and kitchen through here.” You nested on the couch, not wanting to look over him when he was installing himself somewhere where he probably didn’t want to be at all. You had gotten the remote and was flipping through the channels on your tv, without really watching what was on, when the door opened again.

“May I join you?” He was looking strangely out of place, wearing the same clothes as he had this morning –he probably didn’t even have other ones-, and clearly not completely at ease with being a guest on your apartment.

Just like you. You nodded.   
“Sure. Until we’ve figured out what to do, this is your home as well. I guess...” You didn’t seem overly enthusiastic, and to be honest, you weren’t. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Today, you were just supposed to drop off Klaus at home, go home, live your own life, meet up for a drink in a few days and get to know him a bit better. You shouldn’t immediately become roomies. That was... about three steps too far at this point. And still, there was no other possibility. You weren’t going to kick him out on the streets. Which... probably made you better than his own father.

He sat down, clearly not comfortable as well.   
“I’m so sorry to drag you into this, love. I just... I didn’t know how they would react, and I have to say... in my dreams that reunion went a bit better than it did in reality, and that says something. Even though I should have known my father would react like this.” He sighed. “Do you know this is the first time he even looked at me after...” he fell silent for a moment. “... after everything happened?”

You hadn’t known. But then again, he had never spoken, or written, to be more accurate, about his father. Something that had wondered you sometimes, but he had the right to pick his own subjects. After today, you understood exactly why he had done that.   
“He never looked at you during the trial? Or came to visit you? I mean, he’s still your father, isn’t he?” A few words the man had said stayed in your head, and you wondered if they were just the words of a bitter man who was mourning his wife, or if there was more to it. ‘ _Someone I can’t even call my own son...’_

“None of them have been visiting me... Not my father, nor my siblings. Although after today, I start wondering if he stopped them from coming to me...” Klaus wasn’t able to sit down quietly, kept looking at the door, as if he expected something to happen any time. He hadn’t been able to be at ease for years. He had been constantly supervised, living according to a schedule, and maybe the transition to a normal life wasn’t as easy as he had hoped for.

You wouldn’t be surprised if he was right in that.   
“After today, I can’t really say I blame them. The man scared me to death...” And he wasn’t even one of your relatives. He didn’t have power of you, so if you would have been one of his children...   
“Has he always been like this, or did what you...” Was there an easy way to talk about it? He had been convicted of killing his mother, and even though Mikael might have been harsher than he should have been, he had been the one losing his wife. “He must have been a different father when you were a child?”

He had noticed your hesitation, but chose to ignore it. Maybe there would be a time when he could talk about it with you, but not now. It was too early for that. He didn’t even know if he could trust you, or if everything would be taken away from him again. It was better not to get attached, that way he couldn’t lose anything either.   
“And still you chose to stand up to him... even when it was just in one sentence. You were brave in there, love. I have no idea if I could have done the same in your position.”

You blushed, not used to praise like this. You had spoken without thinking, regretting it the moment you did it, the moment the attention turned to you.   
“I... I don’t know how I managed to do that. I just thought it really unfair. And I pitied you.” That was probably the wrong thing to say, because the moment you said that, you saw his traits harden, as if he was hiding behind a mask he had been slowly dropping when he was with you.

“I don’t need pity.”, was all he said about it. “And as for the other question... He has never been any different. Not with me, at least. Finn was the one he cared about most...” Finn, his eldest brother who had been nowhere to be seen today. Apparently he wasn’t here now, something he didn’t mourn for long.   
“Elijah sometimes tried to stand up for me, but it didn’t bring him anything. Otherwise he was the prodigy. Always able to do what father wished. Rebekah was his little girl, and the youngest two...” He shrugged. “He never liked me. Ever since I can remember, all I could do was disappoint him.”

You held your breath, afraid to interrupt him. You learned more about where he came from, even about how he felt than in any letter he had written to you. Letters failed to bring over emotion, while watching him speak... you couldn’t see him cry, and you probably wouldn’t, not now, but you could see how his father’s attitude still troubled him. Probably made him into the man he was now. It explained why he hadn’t fought back when his father threw him out, why he had only been standing there, waiting for a judgement he knew could only be negative. Because that was all he had ever gotten from that man.

“Why?”, you asked quietly. “Has he ever given you a reason for it?” Not that there could be a reason good enough to treat a child like that, but still...

Klaus stayed silent for a while, just staring at something you couldn’t see, but you didn’t interrupt him, didn’t pressure him. If he didn’t want to talk, you wouldn’t make him.

The two of you just met, after all, and even though you had the feeling you had known him for longer, you didn’t. Everything was new, both for him and for you, and you couldn’t blame him for keeping some secrets and a lot of feelings from you. You didn’t have a right to hear those secrets. You stood up, walking to the kitchen to make some tea, to have something to do.

The moment you were standing there, still just in sight, he started to talk again.   
“I’m not his son.” His tone was flat, the words were said almost silently, but it was as if he dropped a bomb.

You managed not to drop the kettle you had in your hand, which made you pretty proud.   
“You’re not his? So what he said was meant literally? Not because he doesn’t want to know you anymore?” You sighed. It was the most logical explanation for what happened, but still, how you could treat any child like what you had seen was beyond your imagination. It wasn’t like Klaus had chosen to have another father.   
“So that’s why he never liked you as a child?” The tea was ready, and without asking, you brought him a cup as well, which earned you a thankful look before he wrapped his hands around the warm mug.

“He didn’t know back then. When I was but a child, I was just a major disappointment, never able to live up to his expectations. Not like Finn could. Or Elijah, whose only fault was caring too much for his failure of a brother.”

You saw how he clenched his hands around his mug, the memories clearly still stinging.   
“So how did he find out?”

He was silent again. You didn’t even know if you wanted to hear it,   
“It was five and a half years ago. My mother...” His lips pressed together as if he didn’t want to say anything about her. “She made a mistake. She said something, and both father and I understood what it meant. She had cheated on him, and I was the result of that. And then she started to blame me for everything that happened because of that. He just laughed, at first, saying that explained why I was such a weakling. Why he had never been able to care for me like he cared for his other children. And then I got mad.”

“So you killed her?” You couldn’t help but ask it. You were too curious about what happened, and honestly? You couldn’t even blame him that much for it.

He shook his head.   
“I’m not ready to talk about that yet, love. I shut that away after the trial, and if I never have to talk about that day again, it’s still too early.” He stood up, putting the tea on the table. “I think today was long enough. Sorry, sweetheart, but I think I need to be alone right now. I’m going to bed...”

You nodded.   
“Good night, Klaus.”. You had a lot to think about, and even though you hadn’t done it in the years you had been corresponding with him, you planned to go and look for the court records of his trial after work tomorrow. Somehow you wanted to know what had happened, or at least, what the trial said had happened. The story was never as simple as people said it was, and his confession tonight had made that clear.

Yes, maybe he had killed his mother. But maybe he had had his reasons to do that. Maybe it wasn’t his fault he had become who he was right now.

You stayed there for a while, making sure you wouldn’t run into him in the bathroom or something like that, slowly sipping your tea. Only when you didn’t hear any movement from his room again, you stood up to go to bed.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y/N wants to know more about what happened that fatal night that determined Klaus' life and gets help from an old friend while she unravels the story.

“And since when don’t you tell me when you come here?”

The voice you suddenly heard got you out of your concentration. Your work day hadn’t gone as usual, you had too much to think about, and when it was over you had driven to court to pick up the files you wanted. You had had some trouble getting your hands on them, but somehow it was suddenly very convenient that you had Elijah’s number in your phone. He had managed to convince them they could borrow them out to you, even when he didn’t seem completely comfortable with the idea that you would read them. You smiled when you heard the familiar voice.  
“Damon! I... just had too much on my mind, and I had no idea you were free.”

As if... Damon was always free. He didn’t have to worry about keeping a job, he just worked whenever he felt like it, living off his inheritance the rest of the time.   
“For you, I’m always free.”, he winked when he sat down on the chair opposite you, wanting it grab one of the files, but you held him back.

“Eh eh... that’s not for you to read...” You gathered everything around you. Officially it might be public, but it somehow felt a bit like treason towards Klaus to just let others read through his court files. There was information in there that he wouldn’t like even you to know, let alone someone else, even when that someone else was your best friend. But you weren’t fast enough.

“Klaus Mikaelson?”, he read. “Isn’t that that guy who killed his own mother? I think I’ve heard about that...” He frowned. “What the hell are you doing with that, Y/N. I mean... I didn’t think you had any aspirations to become a lawyer or a judge or whatever it is you want to use those things for.”

You rolled your eyes. Damon could never do something subtle. And actually... you had been a fool to think you could hide something like this from him. Ever since you met him in your last year of college, he managed to see through all of your excuses, immediately getting to the core of things. One of the traits you liked in him.   
“Fine. You got me.” You waved to one of the waiters. “But I’m gonna need booze to tell this, and you’re gonna pay for it for making me do this. No discussion.”

He just smirked and sat back in his chair.  
“Fine by me. Tell me. What do you want with the files of a killer?”

He was not going to make this easy on you.  
“Find out how much of a killer he really is, to be honest. Said killer does live in my spare room at the moment, just so you know.” You raised up your hand to stop his protests you knew would come. “No, he doesn’t seem to be dangerous, no I wasn’t planning to take in someone who just came out of jail, and no there wasn’t another option.”

“Jesus, Y/N. How did that happen?” Damon’s relaxed attitude was gone, and he was leaning on the table, grabbing the bottle the moment it came to pour both you and him a glass.   
“How do you know he’s not gonna do it again, with you as his victim this time?”

“And that’s why I didn’t want to tell you...”, you said, annoyed. “I’ve written with him for a few years now, when he was in jail. And he got out, a few days ago...” You started to tell what had happened, leaving out the specifics, but making clear why you had decided to let Klaus stay at your house.

Damon still didn’t look completely convinced, but at least he wasn’t that shocked anymore.  
“His father sounds like a dick, you know...”

“His father is a dick... believe me, I was there... and the way he looked at me... he gave me the creeps. As if I wasn’t worth even being in his house.” The longer you thought about it, the more uncomfortable it made you. No matter what the man did, no matter how well respected he was outside of his house, whatever you had seen in there had made you lose all the respect you could ever have for him. What Klaus had told you only made that clearer, but that was one of the details you left out when you told Damon the entire story.  
“So... that’s why I’m reading all of this stuff. He doesn’t want to talk about it, I don’t want to ask his family, even when his siblings seem to be ok, so this is the only possibility, but I’m not getting a lot of useful stuff out of it.”

He just grabbed the files, and no matter how you protested, he just started reading them.   
“Let me take a look at it, ok? I might seem useless, but you forgot my father was a lawyer. I grew up with stuff like this.” He scanned it, putting most of it aside as not useful, until he started to smirk.  
“And now we’re getting at the interesting stuff...”

You stood up and walked around the table, knowing Damon that well that you already saw he wasn’t going to give it up. You sat down next to him pushing his arm aside.   
“Let me see... what’s this.”

He pushed the papers towards you.   
“Witness statements. All anonymous of course, or they wouldn’t have been allowed to give it to you, but I think it’s clear enough who said what. This one...”, he pointed towards a long text. “... is from daddy dearest, while this one is from your brand new friend.”

You grabbed the paper, not paying attention to Damon’s protestations. You wanted to see what Klaus had said in his defence, wanted to be sure he hadn’t done it, that it had been some kind of freak accident, or whatever explanation there could be for what had happened.   
“He just didn’t say anything?” You could barely believe what you were seeing. If Klaus really had been innocent, he should have said something, shouldn’t he?

“He didn’t. His father, on the other hand...” Damon was reading Mikael’s testimony, and he pointed out some sentences in it.   
“It’s nasty, Y/N. You really don’t want to see this...” He pushed the papers a bit further away when he saw how you wanted them, suddenly a serious look on his face.

“Give me that, Damon. I got those files, I have more right to know what’s in them than you. You shouldn’t even be reading this!” It felt wrong, showing it to someone who didn’t know Klaus, even when it was Damon, even when you knew Damon didn’t have that much friends he could tell it to. Elijah most definitely wouldn’t like the family secrets spilled like this, you thought... even when you hadn’t had more than one or two phone conversations with the man. And Klaus... you didn’t want to think about Klaus finding out that you had those files, let alone someone else...

He put his hands on them.   
“You don’t want to read this, ok? Although I should let you read them if I want to prevent you spending one more night with that same guy under your roof...” He let go of them, pushing them to you.

You grabbed them, looking for the passage you wanted. Mikael’s testimony. You didn’t even read it completely, scanning did the job quite well... You know the two of them had been fighting, that was what Klaus had already told you. You noticed the cause of the fight wasn’t in the testimony. Apparently Mikael had tried to keep the fact that Esther, or so her name seemed to be, had cheated on him, resulting in a bastard. But he hadn’t been reluctant with anything else. Not with his character sketch of Klaus that painted him as the bad egg in the nest, always tempting his siblings to do something that wasn’t allowed. And not with what had happened. Klaus had pushed his mother. Klaus had laughed about what happened. Klaus was guilty. It was as if someone hit you, you had trouble breathing, and it took a while until you realized that Damon was rubbing his hand on your back.

“Here...” He gave you a glass of water. “You look like you need it...” He didn’t even joke about the water, even when he always had something stronger.   
“I told you it wasn’t pretty...” He cocked his head, looking at you. “Do you need my help kicking him out?”

You shook his head. Somehow you had trouble fitting the image that this testimony painted of Klaus with what you had seen. Sure, maybe Klaus was just that good in pretending to be someone else and he had fooled you, but you had seen what happened between him and Mikael. Something didn’t add up.   
“I’m not going to kick him out. Not yet. Not until I found out what really happened.”

Damon rolled his eyes, pointing at the papers in front of you.   
“There is it. A step by step, blow by blow description of what happened. Ok, the dad’s a dick, but do you really think he would make this up?” He started to gather the papers to put them back in the folder.   
“Besides, if this wasn’t the truth, why didn’t your Klaus say something?”

“You haven’t seen him, Damon. I was there, and Mikael makes you feel like you’re a small child or something. Even I felt it, and I only met the guy a few minutes before.” But then again... you couldn’t understand why Klaus hadn’t at least tried something. There was a judge, there was a jury, and no matter how much more believable Mikael was, he should at least have tried, have fought... That’s what everyone did, wasn’t it?

“No, I haven’t. But I don’t like it one bit to let you go home where he is as well. Promise me you’ll  call when anything happens, ok? Anything! I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He handed you the folder.   
“And if you don’t mind... I have a contact of my own inside of the prison where Klaus was... maybe I’ll try to reconnect and see if I can get anything out of him.”

You shouldn’t have been surprised.   
“You? I should have known...”

Damon shrugged.   
“He’s an old college friend. I... might have left him on his own, but I’ll try, ok. And I still don’t have that promise from you. I’m not letting you go before I have it.”

“Fine...” You said. “If there’s something I don’t trust, I’ll call you. Just... let me handle this, ok?” You didn’t know how yet, but you wanted the full story, and you were pretty sure you only had read half of it.   
“I’ll be fine.”

“I don’t like this one bit, ok?”. Damon stood up, knowing you well enough that he knew he wouldn’t achieve anything.   
“Just be careful. And if I haven’t heard anything from you by tomorrow night, I’ll come knocking at your door. I need to keep an eye on him.”

Fair enough. You probably would have done the same if the roles were reversed.   
“I’ll call you tomorrow, ok?” You put the folder back in your bag. You had to hide it somewhere, you didn’t want Klaus to know you had it. And you had to find a way to get more sides of the stories. Maybe you just needed to cal Elijah... you had promised to keep him up to date when it came to Klaus, after all. You would do that tomorrow...  
“I’ll see you around, ok?”. You hugged Damon, who still was uncomfortable when you did that –one of the reasons you kept doing that-, and went home.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y/N and Klaus sit down for a surprise dinner, a chat and make plans to get him reunited with his family.

You were glad Klaus wasn’t home when you arrived there, and the first thing you did was hide the folder with all the court papers in the bottom drawer of the cupboard. You didn’t want Klaus to know you had them, let alone know you had read them. His father’s story didn’t make him look better, and even though you didn’t believe all of it –you had seen Mikael, after all-, you still had the feeling he wouldn’t like you reading it. You couldn’t help but still feel like you were still looking a bit guilty when the door opened and he came in. You turned around. “Hey...”

He smiled, still looking a bit out of place between all your stuff.  
“Hey you...” He disappeared into his room, only to reappear only moments later. “How about I cook us some dinner, sweetheart? Maybe an attempt of me to make up for everything you have done for me.” He held up a few bags he must have picked up on his way from the job his parole officer had arranged for him.

You smiled, believing the whole horror story about him less and less, every minute you spent around him.  
“Really? You can cook? I knew I did something right when I took you in.” You were actually surprised. He didn’t seem like the type to have learned how to cook from a young age, but then again, you had been living on takeout food and microwave meals for most of the time, so it could probably not be any worse than you could do.  
“I’ll let you surprise me then... and don’t expect me to return the favour, because I can’t cook to save my life. I boil eggs... that’s about as far as I get.”, you laughed.

He walked over to the kitchen, unpacking the bags, showing a lot of fresh vegetables, and pasta. “I hope you like pasta? Because that’s about as far as my skills go as well. I just wanted to have a real meal for once, after...” Ok... he had a point there. Prison food was probably not better than what you had eaten over the last years.  
“It’s something my... we often ate at home...”

You hadn’t missed the way he avoided naming his mother, but you decided to give him time. You wanted to talk about her with him, find out how she was, find out what story about that fatal night could be the truth. The one his father had told, or the one Klaus refused to tell. Maybe to protect his mother, maybe out of fear of his father, maybe because there simply wasn’t another story to tell. You hoped it wouldn’t be the last option.  
“How was work?” That should be a safe topic... one that would get you through the awkward phase of getting to know each other for real, not just in writing. You decided to get a glass of wine to relax a bit, pouring one for him as well. “Here... maybe already some kind of reward?”

He laughed while he took it from you.  
“I would wait with that until you’ve tasted the result, love... but I’m not saying no to it.” He rummaged through your cupboards to get out a cutting board and a knife to start cutting up the vegetables.  
“Work was... boring? I’m not really suited to stand in a shop and let customers yell at me. I tend to yell back.” He held up his hand. “But I’ve been a good boy, like I promised. I only chased away one customer, but I made up for that by managing to talk three others in buying far more than they intended to. Maybe I should have gone to law school after all...”

You started to laugh.  
“Is that a family thing? Law school? And being such a smooth talker that you make everyone forget what they were planning to do?” It wasn’t just Klaus. Elijah had the same ability, or so you had noticed at the court archives, and you thought that if you would meet Mikael under better circumstances, he would be able to do it as well.

He shrugged, looking at the cutting board instead of at you.  
“I guess so. I just didn’t feel like following up in my father’s footsteps... so I dropped out, just before...” He bit his lip. “Elijah did though, so he’s the prodigal son, doing everything right. Just like Finn.”

Right. The one that moved away? And had that been the whole cause of the fight? Klaus wanting to go his own way instead of what was expected of him?  
“What would you have liked to do? I mean... there must be something? Some passion? Maybe you could work on that now while you’re getting back on your feet?”

“Painting...”, he answered immediately while he had found some pots and started to actually cook.  
“I’ve always painted, as long as I can remember. My father hated it... it wasn’t productive, according to him. _A Mikaelson does not become some bloody penniless artist_ , he used to say before locking up my supplies for a week again, when I did something he didn’t approve of. Like getting a C or a B in class. I can tell you there are better ways to motivate someone...”

An artist? That was something you hadn’t seen coming...  
“Were you any good?” You were just curious, suddenly starting to study his hands. They were elegant, indeed artist’s hands, even when you hadn’t noticed that before. And despite everything you had learned today, it was easy to talk to him, at least like this, when it wasn’t forced. It just seemed like two friends spending time together.

“I am quite good, Y/N...”, he laughed. “I don’t do false modesty, so... Yes, I can paint, I know I can. I just never managed to get into art school because father refused to pay for it, and I hadn’t managed to get enough money myself to pay for it. And now that will probably stay a dream forever.”

“Don’t say that!”, you suddenly interfered. “Don’t let go of a dream just because it didn’t work out the first time. You are here now, you have gotten a second chance, and yes, there are some things you have to sit out before you can do it, but don’t give up, ok? I hate that...”

He smirked, pouring the pasta and the sauce in bowls and carrying them over to the table.  
“I have too much to build up now to even think about it, ok? But I’ll keep it in mind. I’ll have to pick up painting anyway. I’ve missed it for far too long.”

“Good...” You brought the bottle and the glasses to the table and sat down. You were actually curious if he had managed to fabricate a halfway decent meal... if so, he might be someone to keep around.  
“And your family?” It was something that you didn’t know how he would take that, but you weren’t planning on letting him here all alone. Meeting Mikael was out of the question, but the rest of them...

“What about them, love?” He served both the pasta and the sauce before starting to eat.  
“It’s not like they really wanted to see me back.”

You dug in as well. “This is good... I’m gonna keep you around. No discussion possible!”, you said surprised, which made him laugh. “And I think you’re wrong in that... Elijah wanted you back, Rebekah as well. I haven’t met the rest of them yet, but...”

“Don’t even think I would want to see Finn again, ok? He was so disgusted about what happened he apparently wanted to move to the other side of the country, just so he wouldn’t have to think about me. Not that I’m surprised about that...” The meal was forgotten for a moment. “As for the rest of them...” He fidgeted with his fork, getting nervous again, just when he was standing in front of their door, only a few days ago.  
“I don’t know if they want to see me...”

You shook your head, putting your hand over his, trying to calm him down a bit.  
“I’ve... kind of been in touch with Elijah, lately?” You carefully said, hoping he wouldn’t take it the wrong way. “What if we just meet for lunch next Saturday? You’ll be off, I can go with you if you want to, and we can invite Elijah, Rebekah and Kol? I mean... we’ll pick a public place, everyone will have to behave, and you can see how it’ll work out now?” You took another bite, not wanting to let the pasta go to waste just because you wanted to help Klaus get his family back.

“That might work...” He followed your example. “I just don’t know if they stayed away because of father, or because...” He didn’t finish his sentence, but you know what he wanted to say. He was scared that they didn’t want him anymore, but somehow you doubted that.

“They’re still your family, Klaus. If they want to give you a chance, you should do the same... I’ll call Elijah, if you say yes, and he can try to get Rebekah and Kol on board. We just need to make sure Mikael doesn’t know about it, that’s all...”

He finished his plate, still somehow in thoughts.  
“Fine. Let’s just do it. The longer I wait, the more I’m not going to do it anymore. So if it all goes to hell, let it happen now. At least I know what I’ll have to deal with.”

You smiled... you got what you wanted out of this. A distraction from the papers that were waiting for you in that bottom drawer, a chance to learn to know Klaus and his siblings, and a plan to get Klaus back on track. This had to work.  
“I’ll call Elijah. You keep Saturday free.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y/N arranged a Mikaelson family lunch to get Klaus closer to his siblings. Maybe inviting Kol as well wasn't the best idea ever...

“Stop pacing!” It probably wouldn’t help one bit that you said it, seeing that you had said to Klaus it at least five times in the last thirty minutes.

Klaus was just very nervous, and he had showed that since the moment you both got up this morning. He didn’t knock over his cereal just yet, but it had come close… and he hadn’t eaten barely as much as he usually did. Now he was just checking the time, over and over again.   
“And you’re sure they said yes?”

You sighed, closing the book you was trying to read. When he was acting like this, you couldn’t make any progress anyway.   
“Yes, they said yes. Elijah sounded pretty happy when I invited him, and I could hear Rebekah in the background, saying to him it was about time you got back at them. I don’t know anything about Kol, of course, and Finn doesn’t know a thing, like we discussed, so it’s just going to be the three of them, you and me. Happy now?”

He shook his head.   
“Not really. Kol hates my guts, probably.”

You rolled your eyes.  
“Just like you thought Elijah would hate them when you asked me to pick you up instead of him? That went fine, remember?” You thought Klaus needed to do this. You didn’t want him locked up in your apartment, too scared of his father -no matter how right he was in being scared of that man- to pick up his life again. You were glad you had made it a lunch though… spending an entire day with Klaus like this would probably drive you crazy, and it gave both parties the opportunity to go relatively quick when matters didn’t go as you would expect them to.

He shook his head.   
“No… Kol is… different. He was still young when I left, and all he heard were our father’s stories. He’ll believe all of them, which makes me the brother who took his mother from him. Way to go…”

Ok… Klaus could have a point there… but the whole fact that Kol had decided to come along should count for something, shouldn’t it? Mikael was fast enough to kick Klaus out of the house, if Kol was just as mad as Klaus thought he was, he wouldn’t want to see his brother at all. Unless Elijah bullied him in coming along. Now the both of you had too much time to worry about that…   
“Come on. No need for you to pace anymore, or you’ll wear out your carpet. Let’s just go. If traffic doesn’t cooperate, we don’t need to be nervous that we’ll be late.”

Klaus seemed almost glad to get into action, and some of the nerves seemed to disappear. He clearly needed action, something to do. The whole waiting thing didn’t suit him.

Sometimes you wondered how he had made it through all that empty time in prison.

Traffic was cooperating, of course, and the both of you arrived at the restaurant fifteen minutes early, but the table was already free. Despite the fact that you most definitely understood why Klaus would want to order a beer, you made him change his mind to coffee.   
“Let’s first see how this will go before you get drunk, ok?”

Just after your drinks had arrived, Klaus’ head snapped up.   
The bell linked to the door of the restaurant sounded again, and you saw Rebekah and Elijah enter, followed by a young man who could only be their younger brother, so much did he resemble Elijah. You raised your hand to catch their attention, and Elijah smiled when he saw the both of you.

It didn’t take long before everyone was seated. Elijah and Rebekah greeted Klaus pretty amiably, while Kol kept his distance, clearly wanted to test the waters before he would do or say something.

And then it was silent. Somehow you should have expected that. You couldn’t bring a broken family together and expect them to pick up where they left off like nothing had happened, but you had forgotten to think out an icebreaker to start everything off. Stupid… You saw a smirk around Elijah’s lips when he noticed your desperate look the moment you thought you had made a giant mistake by arranging all of this.

“Niklaus… I have to say I’m a bit disappointed that I had to get a call from your lovely friend here for this get together instead of you. I had hoped we could at least try to make a new start after the… rocky past few years.” The eldest brother shot a warning look at Kol, who couldn’t help to snort at the last remark, and who clearly was only here because Elijah had pressured him to come along.

Klaus however sat a bit more straight at Elijah’s words. He clearly hadn’t expected the support of his brother, and even when he was still avoiding looking at Kol, he did see the smile on Rebekah’s face as well.  
“I… merely thought it wasn’t my place, Elijah. Maybe it was foolish of me, but after how my visit at our house ended… you can hardly blame me for being careful, brother. Even when it wasn’t you who let it end like that.”

“Come on Nik…”, Rebekah chimed in from the other side of the table. “You can’t blame us for what father did. We weren’t angry to see you a few weeks ago, we’re not angry to see you now. Except for the fact that you left us hanging for far too long, of course…”

“I’m not too sure of that…”, the youngest Mikaelson added, despite the stern look Elijah shot him. “No, Elijah, I won’t shut up.”, he added after looking back at his older brother. “I don’t know why you dragged me here, telling me I should not tell father, but he killed mother. I’m not sure if I’m ready to forgive that.” He was looking at Klaus with clear hatred in his eyes, and it wasn’t hard to see you had made a giant mistake in wanting him to come as well today.

You were ready to kiss the waiter who clearly had a talent for breaking in in the most tense situations to take the order, and after everyone had ordered their food -and Elijah had clearly whispered a few words to Kol-, Kol demonstratively shut his mouth and crossed his arms, which probably said more than if he would have finished what he had started.

Klaus had grown pale over the scolding, and you saw a smirk appearing on his face, one that didn’t promise a lot of good. He didn’t handle being challenged too well.  
“You had anything else to say, Kol?”, which only lead to a head shake of the young man. “Because you’re right. I’ve been put away for years for what I did. I have paid. Society seems to think I have been punished enough, because I walked out of the front door of the prison, I have not tricked my way out of there. I’ve done my time, and I want to start over. With you guys, but if I have to do it without you, I will.”

“Don’t talk nonsense, Nik.”, Rebekah broke off Klaus’ pity party. “It’s gonna be with us, even when father doesn’t agree. And Kol doesn’t get a say in it at all. He can just go and visit Finn if he’s so shaken by just seeing you.”

“So that’s the reason Finn hasn’t been invited here? He moved to the other side of the country because he couldn’t stand living here without mother! The two of you are delusional if you can think that we can just get our family back together”, Kol broke his silence, and he ignored Elijah who tried to shut him up again.   
“Our family is broken, and he is the one who did that. Not me, not Finn and not father. Nik!”, he pointed at Klaus who started to grow more angry with every word Kol said.   
“I didn’t exactly have a choice in coming here or not, but that doesn’t mean I have to play nice with the one person I never want to see again. I’m leaving.” He stood up, but Elijah pulled him down again.

“You are not going anywhere, Kol.”, his warm voice said, but there was a hint of a threat in it now, something not only you noticed.   
“You will calm down, you will play nice, and you will most definitely not inform father of anything that is happening here.” As if by magic, Elijah held up Kol’s phone, deleting the text his younger brother was writing.   
“You will get this back when we leave.” He smirked, dropping the phone in the pocket of his jacket.   
“Where were we? Right…” He turned to Klaus again. “We were discussing why it had to take weeks for her to contact me. I was worried, Niklaus. I’m glad you found Y/N, because at least I knew you were getting by, but else? Don’t do that again, please?”

You did understand why Elijah had gone into law. He managed to calm down a situation that was quickly getting out of hand, without making a scene. The few other people in the restaurant who had started to look at your table when Kol was making his scene had turned back to their own table partners, and it was like nothing had happened.

Klaus nodded.  
“Fair enough. I probably got a bit rusty on normal manners when I was out of society for a while, brother. Please forgive me.” He couldn’t help but shoot looks at Kol again, as if he was afraid his younger brother would start his attacks again, but Elijah seemed to have done a decent enough job in putting him down.   
“And little sister…”, Klaus turned to Rebekah. “I can’t thank you enough for coming here. I’m glad to see your gorgeous face again. How have you been doing over the past years? You’re in college now?”

You smiled, again exchanging a look with Elijah. The worst crisis seemed to have been averted. Klaus was still capable of normal polite talk, and Rebekah didn’t lose the chance to bring her brother up to speed with what she was doing right now.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Mikaelson family lunch ends unexpectantly pleasant. And Klaus has another surprise for Y/N.

“An English major? My little sister is turning heads in college now, and is top of her class on top of that?” Klaus seemed surprised, even when he had always known Rebekah was smart. He just had left a little girl behind, at least in his head, and now he had returned she had grown into a woman. And a beautiful one as well. Something he regretted to have missed, but he had to admit he was more than glad she allowed him to be part of her life now.   
“Should I start to get worried about you bringing home too many suitors?”

Rebekah snorted.  
“You are not going to get yourself involved in anything remotely resembling my love life, Nik. I already had to tell Elijah that much. Having just father hovering over me is enough, I don’t need the two of you doing the same. I’ll be fine, really. I’ve practiced kicking all of your asses when I was still a girl, remember?”

The two brothers exchanged a look, and you couldn’t help but starting to laugh when you saw the apologetic expression on Elijah’s face, as if he had to make clear he couldn’t help this outburst.  
“Well… I think it’s pretty clear who really runs this family”, you said smiling, while you looked at Rebekah, who smiled back, throwing a look at the men at the table that showed clearly she knew her power over them.

Elijah sighed, acting defeated.  
“Now you see what I had to endure all that time…” he shot an angry look at Kol, making sure he was still behaving himself while he finished his lunch, and a fake desperate one at Rebekah.  
“I will need your backup, Niklaus, or I might end up grey before my time.”

You shrugged, eating the last bit of the burger you had ordered.  
“It seems to me you’re doing fine, Elijah. At least, in the short time I know you.” You had grown to rely on him when you needed something regarding Klaus, even when Klaus hadn’t been aware of that fact, and he probably should stay ignorant about it.   
“We couldn’t have been here without you, and I mean that...” You didn’t know how to thank the oldest brother for that. Even when the meal seemed to start as a disaster because of Kol’s interruption, after Elijah shut him up effectively, it had become agreeable… Klaus, Rebekah and Elijah had been catching up on those five years, like they hadn’t spend so much time apart, and even when Klaus still had to get used to being around them again, the tension had lifted and it had become more or less comfortable. They had started to joke around, and now everyone had finished their meals, Elijah had decided to order a bottle of wine to finish the meal.

When he had poured everyone’s glass, even Rebekah’s, after her indignant insistence that she had passed the legal drinking age already, where Elijah had retorted that it was still not that easy to see his little sister in that light, you all rose your glass, except for Kol, who kept seated with his arms crossed and his lips pressed together.  
“To my brother Niklaus, who has finally returned to us. And to Y/N, who had the courage to go behind his back and bring us all together today. Thank you for that, darling…”

You smiled when you toasted, not expecting the praise at all, but you also didn’t miss Kol’s dark look in your direction, as if it was your fault he was stuck here. You swallowed, but tried to ignore it and push it to the back of your mind.

You instead decided to turn to Klaus, who was doing a better job than you did in ignoring his younger brother, and the smile on his face seemed to be a real one this time. He just looked at Elijah with a look you easily recognized as some kind of admiration for his big brother. If you weren’t wrong, Elijah had been the one Klaus had been looking up to his entire life, when he couldn’t get the appreciation from his father every child wanted.

Unfortunately Elijah still had an appointment later that afternoon, so when everyone had finished their drinks, he reluctantly stood up.   
“As agreeable as this was, I am afraid I will have to break this up, or I will have some very unsatisfied clients after today, and I can’t have that.” He walked towards his brother, pulling him in a hug that Klaus clearly had not expected.  
“Don’t wait that long before getting in touch again, Niklaus. I’ve missed you…” Then he came to you, and even when you wanted to shake his hand, as you had always done, he pulled you into a hug as well, partly to be able to whisper in your ear. “Will you take care of him? He needs you, more than you’ll probably realize. And more than he would ever want to admit, Don’t be afraid to call in my help if you need something.”

You nodded. You had no idea where this would end, but despite the papers lying in that bottom drawer, you felt more and more drawn to Klaus. Seeing him smile like he just had made you happier than you had been in a long time. Something didn’t add up, something about that report didn’t go well with the man you had seen today, with the man you had experienced lately, with the family you saw.

You waved after them when Elijah left, taking Rebekah and Kol with him –the last one mostly because he couldn’t risk Kol informing Mikael of your whereabouts while you were still there- to drop them off at home, and you walked over to Klaus who was still gazing after his family.  
“That wasn’t as bad as expected, wasn’t it?”

He turned around, smiling.   
“If we don’t count Kol’s outburst at the beginning, no, it was not. And I think I even can live with what he said… as long as I get the other two back. I knew things couldn’t continue like I left them. Losing Kol is apparently part of the price I have to pay.”

It couldn’t be easy… you had no idea how the relation between Kol and Klaus had been in the past, but you did remember the family photo you saw at their house, and it looked quite peaceful, even when you knew there was more going on than the photo showed.  
“Maybe he’ll turn around, Klaus, you never know…” You had no idea if that was the truth. Klaus hadn’t seen that last look. You had.

But he already shook his head.   
“He won’t. It’s Kol, and if there’s something he’s good at, it’s stubbornness. He has his opinions, and it’s hard to change them. I did do what he accused me of, after all…” His voice dropped, and he started to shift on his feet, as always when he spoke of his crime. It was still a subject he rather avoided, but Kol had made that difficult.

You still weren’t so sure about the fact that he had indeed done it, but you didn’t want to say that yet. You needed him more relaxed, less alert when you addressed that subject.  
“Come on… I’ll get the bill, and then we have to go in case that brother of yours decides to tell your father where he can find you. I doubt Mikael is happy with what happened this afternoon.”

“Which is exactly why we arranged this behind his back. And why we shouldn’t have invited Kol.” He watched how you wanted to get the bill, but you found out someone had already taken care of it. The man in the suit, according to the waiter. Klaus tensed when he heard that, but you decided to ignore it. He had to get used to people taking care of him.

You didn’t protest when Klaus took your hand when you walked out. He was usually the one keeping his distance, while you wanted to wait how comfortable he was with your company, but it wasn’t unpleasant. “How about a walk before we head home?”, you suggested. The afternoon had been too nice to end already.

Klaus smiled.   
“I like your ideas, sweetheart… I believe there’s a lovely park over there. Elijah used to take me there when we were still children…” He stopped there, and you squeezed his hand, letting him know you were ok with it. You wanted to hear more about when they were little. From before everything had become difficult. Had become damaged.

You wanted to know more about his childhood, about how he and Elijah had been as children, and you hoped they would be able to get some of that trust back.   
“Sounds great…” You weren’t ready to go home yet either, and you followed his lead, finding that the park he was talking about was indeed close. It wasn’t much. A lawn, a small pond, two swings for the children, but it was quiet and you enjoyed just spending time with Klaus, chatting.

He took you to the swings, that were actually too small for the both of you now, but it was fun to play on them, imagining you were kids and were playing here. He told you how Elijah had pushed him so high he almost ended up crying, and how he made his brother promise not to tell his father, because big boys didn’t cry. Elijah never told, of course. He smiled -and a beautiful smile it was- when he described Elijah teaching him how to pitch a baseball, even when Klaus never got the hang of it. He pointed out where Elijah almost had to fish him out of the water. “I wanted to catch that fish, ok! I was bloody six years old, I didn’t think about not being able to swim! It just didn’t seem important at that time.”, he managed to tell you like you could see it happening in front of you.

You burst out laughing.  
“Poor Elijah. He was just a kid and already you were giving him grey hairs. I’m surprised he’s still that good looking.”

Klaus suddenly raised his eyebrows and looked you in the eye.   
“Why the sudden interest for my brother? Did I miss something?”

It was only then that you realized what you had said, and you just shrugged.   
“You didn’t miss anything. I just like how he was trying everything to make today comfortable for everyone. Except Kol. But I guess I like him even more for that. And the stories you’re telling now. I wish I could have known the both of you before everything went wrong.”, you explained.

“Good.”, Klaus answered. “Because I think I would not appreciate you falling for Elijah at all. Jealousy is not my best look…”

You frowned again, wondering what he meant with that, but the moment you realized, he didn’t give you any time to doubt. You felt his lips crash into yours, and the kiss he gave you was a huge surprise. Not an unpleasant one, you had to admit, Klaus was a great kisser, and even when you hadn’t been waiting for this to happen, you couldn’t deny you had already slowly been falling for Klaus. You liked his direct approach and you did even kiss him back, closing your eyes to enjoy the feeling.

Until you suddenly felt nothing anymore. When you opened your eyes, all you saw was someone running away, out of the park. Away from you.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y/N needs to do something after that kiss, but she doesn't know what. And then she does what she always does in situations like these. Call Damon. But she doubts if he's giving the right advice.

_What the hell just happened?_ You stared at the disappearing man, you thought about the kiss he had given you, the kiss you had returned and you wondered what you had done wrong, why he had run away.

An older lady passed you by, smiling at you.   
“Your boyfriend stood you up, dear?”

You automatically started to reply with your standard reply.  
“I don’t have a boyfriend.”, but when she walked on, you realized you weren’t so sure about that now. No, you didn’t have a boyfriend. It had just been one kiss, and apparently it was that bad that Klaus decided to run away. Besides… the man was a convicted killer who was just living with you until he had managed to get back onto his own feet. You had a pretty convincing file in your bottom drawer that told you exactly what he had done. No matter if you wanted to believe it, it was there. After you sat down on one of the benches next to the pond, you stared into the water, wondering if trying to drown yourself in it -which would be pretty impossible, because you were pretty sure you could stand in it- would be better than going home tonight, see Klaus again and act like nothing happened. In the end you decided to do what you always did when you didn’t know what to do anymore. You called Damon and waited until he would be there.

Which was pretty fast, luckily. He could always be trusted to turn up when you needed him.  
“I’m not gonna say I told you so… but…” he sat down next to you, and you threw him an exasperated look. He replied on that by raising his eyebrows.  
“What? You called me because there was something with Klaus? I assume he let you down?”

You couldn’t help but swat him on the arm.  
“Yes, he let me down, but that doesn’t have anything to do with that file I had. He… he kissed me!”

Damon started to laugh.   
“And the guy is such a bad kisser you had to call me to talk about the disappointment. I’m not sure if I like this development though… The guy might be dangerous.”

You sighed.   
“And I told you I’m not afraid of that. And no, he wasn’t disappointing. It was rather good actually…”  
Maybe even so good that you didn’t want to admit it was exactly what you had wanted for a long time, but just hadn’t dared to admit that to yourself, let alone someone else.  
“He just ran away. Not a good sign, I know that.”

It didn’t help much… Damon just laughed more, despite your remark that that wasn’t what you expected of a friend.   
“Come on, Y/N. You’re expecting the classic love story here? Girl rescues guy, they fall in love, they kiss and all is well in the world? Newsflash… The world isn’t a fairy tale, and he probably hasn’t kissed someone in years.” He became serious again, putting an arm around your shoulder to calm you down.  
“Listen, I’ve managed to talk to that friend of me in prison, Enzo, and he told me Klaus was very much a loner there… didn’t brag about what he did, but didn’t deny it either. And he most definitely didn’t have any girlfriends, family, or actually anyone coming to visit him… that was something that was even remarkable there. He didn’t have anyone. And now he has you, and he’s probably confused. Do you have a car?”

You looked at him with a hint of surprise at that transition.  
“I think Klaus had the keys, so no, I don’t… I’ll take the bus.” Then you thought about everything else Damon had said.  
“I didn’t expect it to be a classic love story, ok? I didn’t expect a love story at all, he kind of surprised me. I just didn’t expect the whole running away part. It’s not really good for my self esteem, you know. Even when you say it’s probably him.”

“No, you’re not taking the bus. I’m bringing you home. Come on.” He stood up, dragging you to your legs as well, and he walked you out of the park.  
“I’m still not happy with how this is going ok? I don’t trust the guy, and I most definitely not like him leaving you here like that. But I can’t blame him for having a bit of trouble getting adapted to all of this. So… you either need to kick him out, which would be my plan A, you need to talk to him, which is probably plan B, or you’ll have to go with plan C, then I’ll talk to him. Which will end in plan A, by the way.”

“No! I’m not kicking him out! I can’t!” You didn’t want to. You just didn’t want him to tell you he was going to leave, which… you had to admit you were afraid of. But that did mean Damon was right. You needed to talk.  
“I’ll talk to him. You’re right.” You hated to admit that last bit…

Damon did not. Damon loved it.  
“I’m always right. You know that. Now get in…”, he ushered you into his car, and he drove you home.

You got out of the car and started to protest when Damon got out as well.  
“You don’t need to come with me. I’m gonna do it. Once he gets home…”

Damon just shrugged.  
“I just want to be very sure about that. Besides, I want to meet the guy. And if he’s not home yet, I’m not going to let you sit there all by yourself, thinking over everything that happened and change your mind the moment he gets through the door. Come on, I need a drink, and I know you have something up there.” He chuckled. “I put it there myself a few weeks ago, after all.”

You rolled your eyes, but you climbed the stairs to your apartment, opening the door, not knowing if you hoped Klaus would be there or not… You walked in, Damon on your heels, so you couldn’t even shut him out, and when you came into the living room, Klaus was sitting there, his eyes focused on the door, as if he had been waiting for you.

The moment he saw Damon, he jumped up.   
“You brought someone to kick me out?”

Damon started to laugh.  
“If it was up to me, I’d do that, yes. Fortunately for you, the lady wanted to make another choice, but she’s still welcome to change that.” He walked over to Klaus.  
“I don’t like you, and I think you don’t deserve what she’s doing for you...”

You grabbed his shirt, pulling him back, looking at Damon with fire in your eyes.   
“That’s enough. This is my house, this is my choice, not yours. You can go. Or have a drink in the kitchen, whatever you want.”

“I’ll have that drink…”, Damon said, pouring himself a glass and disappearing into the kitchen, as you told him.   
“If you need me, you only need to call me, I’m a few steps away.”

You were not going to do that. You were a big girl, you could handle this yourself. And you were most definitely not going to get in the middle of some testosterone fight. You turned back to Klaus, who was just staring at you.  
“Why?”, was the only thing you asked him.

“Why the kiss?”, he wondered. “I thought that much was clear, love. I started to care about you… I just shouldn’t…”

You raised your hand to stop him.  
“I kissed you back, didn’t I? I think I’m falling for you as well. Or were. I just… why did you run? If you thought I wouldn’t want it, why didn’t you just stop and apologize. This just sucked, you know?” You took the bottle Damon had put there and poured yourself a drink as well. You were no heavy drinker, which is why Damon had known you wouldn’t have finished the bottle yet, but you needed one now. You held it up to Klaus.  
“You too?”

He smirked, and somehow you were glad to see that smirk again.  
“Please. I believe I need one.” He took the glass from you, and sipped it, before leaning on the couch.  
“I don’t know, Y/N. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that, but I panicked… and all I knew was to get out of your way. Out of your life, maybe, but then I came back here, and couldn’t pack up my things. Even when your friend is probably right and that’s what I should do.”

You shook your head. Damon might be right in saying that Klaus should go, that staying involved with him was stupid, and that he wasn’t worth the risk, but somehow you had the feeling he was worth the risk. You had seen him with Rebekah and Elijah this afternoon, and that hadn’t been a dangerous man… That was a man yearning for others to care for him. He was just too stubborn to admit that.  
“You shouldn’t. I’m not kicking you out, like I said. I just want honesty. I don’t want you to kiss me and then run. I want you to stay. Say it if you did something wrong. Or say it if you didn’t. I liked it, Klaus. And I get that you’re still looking for a way to live, but I want to help you with that.”

“I’m not a pity project, love…”, he said indignantly, creating a bit of distance between the two of you.   
“I will be the first to admit that I wronged you. I should not have walked away like that. Bloody hell, I shouldn’t have kissed you in the first place, even though I can hardly regret that, but I refuse to be used as some kind of means to make you feel better about yourself.”

“You don’t regret it?” That was the part you picked out of it. You shot a look at the kitchen where you knew Damon was listening in and probably rolling his eyes about what he heard.  
“Because the only thing I regret is that you ran. I want you to know you have a safe place here, ok? You can’t go home, and I’m not going to kick you out on the streets. But I do want you to be honest with me. I like you. I probably more than just like you, and if you feel the same, great, we can work with that. You just need to admit it…”

“I do care, Y/N. Or I would not have kissed you. I just have no idea what it can become. What I have to offer you, and I don’t know if I want that for you. I don’t even know what to do with myself right now, let alone you...” He was looking at you with those eyes you knew you couldn’t resist.

“I think I’m the one to determine what’s good for me, Klaus, not you. I’m the one who should make that choice. And I’m the one telling you I want at least to try what this can become. We might have started out a bit weird, but we’re here, together. And I’m not letting you go because of your old fashioned ideas of what you have to provide for me.” You were getting by on your own for a few years now, and you were doing pretty well like this. It’s not like you needed Klaus to provide for you. You needed him to care about you. That was way more important. You could figure out the rest together...  
“So you’re staying. But you’re not doing anything like that anymore. I need honesty from you. Promised?”

“Promised…”, Klaus said, and he sighed in relief.   
“I’m still not completely sure if this will work, but…”

“We’ll find out while we’re trying this, Klaus. There are no guarantees.”

The door to the kitchen opened, and you saw a clearly bored Damon standing in the door opening.  
“I’ll leave you two love birds alone. I was out of whiskey after a minute already, and I desperately need more after what I just heard, but not here.” He turned to Klaus.  
“Do anything to her, and you’ll have to answer to me. And I’m not going to go as easy on you as she did.” Then he turned to you.  
“Call me every other day. That deal still stands. If you don’t, I’ll come and check up on you.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus and Y/N talk, make plans and clear some problems between them.

“Call him?”, Klaus wondered. “What the bloody hell is he talking about?”

You glanced at the bottom drawer of the cupboard, where the papers were lying that had provoked that reaction from Damon.  
“He wanted to know who you were and how I met you when we met up the other day, so I had to tell him the basics. Now he’s afraid you’re an incurable criminal and worried about his friend’s fate while living with you. I think he’s scared you’ll kill me in my sleep or something like that.”, you explained, rolling your eyes, almost feeling ashamed for Damon’s behaviour.

But Klaus reacted much better than you had expected. He watched in the direction of the door where Damon had just disappeared.   
“I don’t think I can blame him for that. I probably would have done the same if I would have been in his position.”

You started to chuckle.  
“So you’re the overprotective kind of boyfriend?”, you wanted to know. You sat down on the couch, pulling your feet under you, making yourself comfortable.

Klaus raised his eyebrows.  
“Ok… we’re doing that now?” Then he shrugged, deciding it might not be the worst idea in the world. If the two of you wanted to get to know each other, today might not be the worst day for that.  
“I’m not the type to just let my hypothetical girlfriend run everywhere she wants without commenting on that, if that’s what you mean. I want her safe, and inviting a convicted criminal into your home, let alone start making out with him, is not exactly what I would call safe.” He grinned. “Not that I want to discourage you in doing it in this case, because I’m really glad you have offered me a place to stay here. I can make an exception here and there. I mean, I would really talk myself out of your grace if I would completely agree with your friend.” He looked at you, smirking. “You wouldn’t want me not to worry, wouldn’t you? In my eyes, that would mean I don’t care what would happen to you, and I do. And apparently, so does Damon.”

Ok. You had to deal with that. You weren’t planning to give up your freedom just because you and Klaus might become something more than just roommates, but you couldn’t deny there was some kind of logic in it.  
“As long as you don’t start controlling me. I have my own life, and I’m used to living it.”

He smirked, that smirk that was so hard to resist.  
“I haven’t seen you do anything foolish until now, love, so I think we’ll be fine. Except hooking up with me, because everyone would call that foolish. But you can’t blame me for trying to stop you if I see you trying to ruin yourself. It seems you kept that deal with Damon, or he would have barged in here to defend your honour a lot sooner, so I think we can work something out as well.”

“Ok. You can stop me if I’m about to do something stupid, even though I probably won’t listen anyway, but I want the same privilege in that case.” You weren’t going to become one of those woman who would gratefully settle and listen to their boyfriends in everything. You were in this together, that meant you would do it together.

“That sounds only reasonable.”, he smiled. “But in case you had missed it, I have been trying to behave lately.”

You nodded.   
“I know. I’ve seen that today. And the last few weeks. Even when I don’t have anything to compare it to.” You did get an idea though... not something that would involve doing something stupid, but that would make sure you got to know each other a bit better. Maybe even get his guard down to talk about what had happened the night his mother died. Something that you probably would regret once you were doing it, because you were sure you would totally suck at it, but it might help Klaus to come back on his feet.  
“You know… there’s this art class they’re giving around the corner here. If you promise not to laugh at my attempts to draw stick men, we could go there together? You could draw again…”

He sat down on the couch, making himself comfortable now it was clear he wouldn’t have to leave.  
“I barely painted for five years… maybe I’m the one needing an art class to freshen everything up. But yes. I do think that’s a splendid idea, actually. One Elijah put in your head again?” He cocked his head, looking at you with a grin on his face.   
“Yes, I know you’re calling him from time to time. But as long as that’s all you’re hiding, I’m fine with that. And I solemnly promise only to praise your without a doubt very skilfully drawn stick men.”

You tried not to look guilty, again. You were hiding more, but there was no way Klaus was allowed to know that. Not as long as you haven’t looked into what’s in the file.   
“No, Elijah did not put me up to this. Although I think he’d like it too. He just wants what’s best for you, ok? And as long as you’re too stubborn to look for help... “

He raised his eyebrows.   
“I’d rather call it independent, love. That sounds a lot better.”

You started laughing.   
“Stubborn, independent… it’s just how you look at it, isn’t it? But I’m glad we’re back to laughter… somehow it would have been quiet here without you. Although I wouldn’t have missed the fact that you constantly forget to pick up your laundry from the floor…” You had no idea you could get used to having someone around this fast. You had always liked living alone, but you had to admit you would miss Klaus if he were to leave.

“I do not constantly…” He started indignantly, before frowning. “Ok, I might forget to pick some things up from time to time…”, he admitted. “I’ll work on that, love.”, he winked, with the twinkle in his eye, before getting serious again.  
“Thank you for today, Y/N. You know I didn’t want to do this, but it was a good idea. I needed it. I probably need my family more than I want to admit. Somehow we belong together. And if we can forget about how foolish I was after that, I think we can call this a good day, in the end.”

You nodded.   
“I agree. Sorry for pressing you, but you did need this. And Rebekah and Elijah needed it as well. I just can’t stand you living next to each other when you actually want the same. We just should have left Kol out of it… that’s my only regret.” Then again… that confrontation probably had to come sooner or later anyway, and now you had it behind you. Your only fear was that he was going to tell Mikael, and what the consequences of that would be.  
“Can you call Elijah or Rebekah tomorrow?”, you asked Klaus. You could do it yourself, but you wanted him to get in touch.  
“Just to make sure everything went well after they came home?”

Klaus started to laugh.  
“They’ll be fine, Y/N. Elijah is a big boy now, he can take care of himself. And Rebekah.” Then he became serious. He knew why you were afraid, and he was probably laughing part of his own fears away.  “I’ll call them tomorrow, if that makes you feel better. Or I could do it now?”

You smirked, moving towards him, and leaning against him.   
“Not now. We just got rid of Damon. Why don’t we keep tonight for the both of us? I mean… you have something to make up for.”

Klaus grinned, wrapping his arm around you and pulling you closer.   
“I think that can be arranged.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y/N meets up with Elijah to talk about the file she is still keeping hidden. Something in it doesn't sit well.

“He’s doing well, isn’t he?” Elijah wasn’t the one to leave the question hanging for a long time after you exchanged pleasantries when you met up for a drink about two weeks later.

You had asked him to meet up. You needed to talk with someone about the file that was burning in your cupboard, and you reckoned Elijah was the most reasonable of the siblings. If there was someone able to shed some light on what had happened, he was the most logical choice. Before you went to Klaus, you wanted to know how probable what you had read was.  
“He is.”, you answered, smiling and blushing at the same time. He was doing more than ok, actually, and so were you, but you weren’t sure if you were ready to admit that to anyone else yet. Then again... you didn’t need to.

Elijah however was keen enough to see what was going on, and a genuine smile appeared on his face. “I thought I already sensed something during that lunch. How official is it yet?”

You shrugged.   
“Not at all. We’re just…” Kissing, touching, spending more time together than you should? Elijah didn’t have to know about that. “... getting to know each other a bit better. We’re taking it slow, with everything that happened. But yes… we’re at least trying to get together. It started after that lunch, actually, so you caught on pretty fast.” You started laughing.  
“When he found out I didn’t really have a crush on you.”

Elijah started laughing.  
“Well, even if you would have, that would have been bad luck for you. Kat doesn’t allow competition, so for your sake I’d make sure the gossip of you and Klaus reaches her fast, or she’ll claw your eyes out.”

You raised your brow.   
“You have a girlfriend? Or are you married? Klaus didn’t mention that…” You realized how much there was you didn’t know about his family yet, and how much you still had to learn.

“Don’t worry about that, ok?” Elijah leaned back, letting the waiter put your glasses on the table.  
“He probably doesn’t even know yet. I met her about four years ago, and we married three years later. I’d like to see them meet one day.” He was clearly very amused by the thought, which made you think she must really be a piece of work.   
“You two were lucky I was home the day you arrived there. Kat and I live around the corner, we’re often there, but I’m not there all the time. I praise myself lucky that I just came to check on Rebekah when Klaus was there. I don’t want to know what happened without me.”

You shuddered. You didn’t want to know either. No matter how much of a disaster that afternoon had been, you were glad Elijah had been there. He had been the only one being able to talk a bit of reason into Mikael.   
“I’d like to meet her one time.”, you flapped out. Meeting the _in-laws?_ More than just getting to know the family of your friend? Boyfriend? Crush? Whatever the hell he had become by now.   
“But I didn’t call you for that, to be honest. Klaus has stayed in touch then? If you know how he’s doing?”

Elijah nodded.  
“I have no idea what it is you have done, Y/N, but he called a few times… even sent a text. It’s going slowly, but I think we’ll get there. We have to work around Kol and father anyway, so we couldn’t go faster, even if we wanted to. But he needs his time as well, and I understand and respect that.”

“It’s progress.”, you admitted. You were the one dragging him to that lunch, and now Klaus started to seek contact with his siblings after that without you, you were glad. That was what you had wanted to achieve. And no matter how small the steps were, what mattered is that he was making those steps.

“But I hardly think you asked me to meet you to talk about your love life, or Niklaus’ progress, as much as I enjoy catching up with you. Was there something you needed me for?” He sipped his coffee while he effortlessly changed the subject.

Which is exactly why you had picked Elijah to meet up with. He made everything sounds so easy, that he must know what to do know. You reached inside of your bag, taking out the file and putting it on the table.   
“Remember that time you called the archive of the court? This is what they gave me…”

Elijah shrank back, as if the file would be able to bite him. He recognized what it was immediately. He had probably worked with a few too many of them. And even when he might be willing to accept Klaus back into his life, he sure hadn’t made peace yet with what had happened all those years ago.   
“I was there, Y/N. I have followed the trial. I know what happened, and I am quite sure I have no wish to stir up those details again.”

“So you know Klaus didn’t say a thing? And you know what your father said?”, you urged. Of course you would want to leave it rest, but something in this file didn’t sit well with you, and you were determined to get that cleared, before clueing in Klaus that you had the file.

“I’m aware of that, yes.”, he nodded. “Look, I know it’s hard to see a murderer in my brother. I never thought he would be capable of something like that either, but he could have said something if our father’s story wasn’t accurate. He should have said something anyway, also if he was provoked. And if he has done it... he could have apologized at least. I just....” He stopped talking, rubbing his face with his hands, and you started to feel sorry.

“I know I shouldn’t do this, Elijah. And I’m sorry for bringing this all back up. But what if my gut feeling is right? What if Klaus is not as guilty as we think? What if something else has happened that night. The only witnesses were Klaus and Mikael…”

Elijah simply shook his head. “My father was too sure to be lying. He might have a lot of flaws, but he has always been honest. Painfully honest, if you ask me. Niklaus on the other hand… He could have talked. He missed his chance. It must be true, or everyone has believed a lie for years.”

You could see he just didn’t want to believe it. You couldn’t really blame him… he had built his world the last five years around everything Mikael had told him.  
“Would you have done it? Stood up to him? I could already see how afraid Klaus is of him, and I don’t even know the whole story…” Klaus became a little boy, the moment his father entered the room.

“I do.”, Elijah simply said. “And it’s not a pretty one. Niklaus has always been afraid of father, ever since we were children. But that doesn’t mean... “ He shifted in his seat, finally deciding to take the folder, opening it where you had marked it. “This is exactly what I remember… father has told this story over and over again, from the moment I came home and saw them carry away my mother. He never changed it.”

You pressed your lips together, realizing that night must have been traumatizing for the entire family. “Klaus doesn’t want to talk about it. The few things he has said agree with what’s standing here... “ You didn’t know if you just were really stubborn in not wanting to believe the official story when even Klaus wasn’t denying it, but you couldn’t help yourself.

“Then why don’t you believe him?”, Elijah asked, pushing the file back to you.

“Because it’s not him. And he might be changed in prison, but I can’t imagine he’s changed that much.” You opened the file again. “But I didn’t want to ask you about what happened that night. You weren’t there, you can’t know. Your father said more than just that… was Klaus always the bad egg, as he told you?”

Elijah shook his head. “Not for me. Maybe for father, but he was just my little brother. I took him to the playground, learned him how to ride a bike when father gave up after two attempts.” He smiled lightly at the memories. “He wasn’t as tough as father wanted him to be, and he thought that a bad influence, especially on Kol, and on little Henrik later. When we were at school, our older brother Finn and I were good in the more business like subjects, while Niklaus excelled in arts. He wasn’t even interested in the rest, which didn’t sit well with father.”

That sounded more like the Klaus you knew. “He told me he always wanted to go to art school…”

Elijah nodded. “Something that was absolutely out of the question, of course. Father would have never paid for that.”

“And he never got to save enough for it.”, you added, remembering Klaus telling you that.

“He would have gotten there, eventually, I’m convinced of that. He’s resourceful enough if he chooses to.” Elijah closed the folder for you, handing it to you. “Please put that away, will you. I’m more than willing to help you with my brother, but I’d prefer not to have to look at that again.”

You did as he told you, putting away the file. Why had you even tried? Because it seemed like both Elijah and Rebekah had forgiven their brother? What you had seen as forgiveness seemed to be an attempt to start over, to not talk about what has been, to just look ahead of them.  
“If I find something that may prove me right…”

“You can come back to me.”, Elijah admitted. “Listen, Y/N. It is not that I want my brother to be a murderer. The alternative is just way worse…”

Right. The alternative would be that Mikael had been lying this entire time. Not just to incriminate Klaus, but to pit his own children against the one he had never liked, the one he had been relieved to find out wasn’t his. And worse... that he might have had more to do with what happened there than he had admitted.   
“Do you know what they were fighting about?”

Elijah checked his phone.   
“About Niklaus not being my father’s son?” He nodded. “Yes. As much as he wanted to keep that fact out of the press, he did tell us, only to give us another reason not to go and visit him. He wasn’t really family, or so he thought.” He grabbed his coat with an apologetic face.

“So he thought? And you?” You wondered. You thought you knew the answer already, but you really liked to hear it.

“It doesn’t make a difference to me, or Rebekah. Finn on the other hand… he never wants to see Niklaus again, and it seems him and Mikael have managed to influence Kol as well. He was still so young and impressionable when it all happened... But pay attention to him, Y/N. He told father where we were that afternoon, and he is furious at Niklaus, and at you. Kol seems to have told him about your attempts to mend the family, and he isn’t taking it well.” He checked his phone again. “I’m sorry to cut this off so sudden, but I need to go. One of my clients is in trouble, and once again I need to get him out. Give my regards to my brother, will you?”

You nodded, even when you weren’t sure yet if you were to tell Klaus you met up with Elijah. Not that you were that afraid that he’d become jealous again, but you would have to explain why, and you weren’t ready to do that yet. The file would go back in that drawer. You had to try to prove it wrong some other way.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get heated between Klaus and Y/N. Even when the ending is not exactly what anyone had expected.

“I have no idea what you’re thinking about, love, but it’s most definitely not the landscape you’re supposed to draw…” Klaus smirked, putting his hands on your shoulders in a gesture that started to feel familiar, while he looked over your shoulder at the paper that had stayed frighteningly blank for way too long. He was right, as he was pretty much always in his observations.   
“If there’s something on your mind, you can burden me with it, you know that, don’t you? I’m not made of glass, I’m finding my way back more and more, and I most definitely do not need to be cuddled and kept out of everything vaguely disturbing.”

You sighed, putting your hand on one of his, gripping it, before you looked up. You couldn’t tell him what was on your mind. You had no idea how to start the conversation you didn’t want to have. _Hey, I don’t think you killed your mother but I do want to know what happened_ might be a bit too blunt.   
“There’s nothing, ok? I’m just a bit distracted. And intimidated by your skills. I barely dare to show you what I’m capable of.” You looked over to his side of the table where he had been finishing a drawing he had started working on in the art class you had indeed started to take.

“Ah, ah…”, he said, leaning over you. “I thought we made the deal I wouldn’t laugh at your stick men. That deal includes me praising your landscapes as well. Your stick men were way better than I thought they would be, so you can do this as well…” He smirked. “Here, let me help you…” He leaned over you a bit more, so you could feel his entire body pressed against your back, and he took your right hand in his.

You still had the pencil in that hand, even when you hadn’t managed to put it on paper yet.   
“What the hell are you doing?”, you frowned. You were supposed to draw this, not him…

“Teaching you... “, he whispered in your ear. “You win at life, most of the time… but I know I’m the way better artist. I want to help you with this.” He chuckled, resting his chin on your head.   
“And I enjoy touching you immediately, so you can’t deny me a reason to do that…” He put the pencil on the paper, starting to draw the first lines.

You just let him do it, enjoying feeling him against you just as much as he apparently did. The warmth radiating from him, the firm but soft way he was holding your hand, the way you could feel his breath in your hair… you followed what he was doing for a short while, already seeing that what he was doing was way above what you could ever do, before you pulled back your arm, dropped the pencil on the table and turned to the side, pulling him in your lap.

He chuckled, wrapping his arms around your neck.   
“I’m not going to say I am not enjoying this, but what about the homework? What will the teacher say?” His grin never left his face, so you were pretty sure he couldn’t care less about that.

“Look at you, suddenly caring about authority figures… It thought that was way beneath you.” You had noticed how he had loved to draw again, to paint, to feel a brush or a pencil in his hand, but you had also noticed and heard how much critique he had on the poor woman giving the class to amateurs. She was totally unprepared for someone like Klaus who would probably be able to get into art school, if he would have the money for it.

He stood up, pulling you up and quickly turned the tables by sitting down again with you on his lap. He wrapped his arm around you.  
“This feels way better…”, he smirked. “And no, I could not care less about what she’s saying… there’s nothing she can teach me, although I am grateful for the opportunity she gives me to finally paint again. You, on the other hand…”, he grinned, silencing the answer you wanted to give him with a kiss. “But you were the one who brought me there, so I don’t care what you draw… I’ll be glad anyway.”

You rolled your eyes, but you nested yourself closer to him anyway. It felt good, being close. It felt comfortable. It was in the moments like these you could almost forget what you had read in the file that was still hidden.  
“I’ll just pretend I haven’t heard that first part then.”, you smiled, kissing him again. It was too easy to get distracted by him. It was only too easy to drown in his smile, in his eyes, in the way he looked at you. You didn’t even think about slipping your hands under his shirt, running your hands over his stomach.

He looked at you, smiling.  
“Being forward, aren’t we?”, but the smile in his eyes made clear he didn’t mind what you were doing. That he was welcoming it, even.

You shrugged.  
“I want more than a few kisses, Klaus. If you’d rather wait, I’ll wait, of course. But you don’t need to play the gentleman and wait for I have no idea what. I want you. All of you.”

He put one of his hands in your neck, pulling you towards him and kissing you, almost claiming you.   
“It will be my pleasure... I had no idea of you were ready for it, but if you are this clear...“ He stood up, pulling you up with him and looked down at you.  
“Your bed or mine?”

You smiled. “Seeing that mine is bigger… mine.” You knew the bed he was sleeping in, and that would be cramped… you didn’t rule out it would happen one day, but if you could pick, you’d rather be comfortable. You let out a small scream when he suddenly lifted you off your feet and carried you to your bedroom, something that made him laugh.

“I had no idea you were capable of doing that, love.” Then he smirked. “Let’s see if I can get more like that out of you…”, he winked, and you felt something tingle inside of you. This was going to be good. He put you down on the bed and crawled on it himself, straddling you.  
“I am going to enjoy this…”, he said, before kissing you and taking off your shirt.

You followed his example, tracing the outline of the tattoo he had on his shoulder.  
“I always loved this one…” You hadn’t seen a lot of it, but the teases you had gotten were enough to make you like the birds.  
“Does it have a meaning?”

He shrugged.   
“When I took it, I just liked the design. Now I like it even more. It’s reminding me how precious it is to be free, to be able to do what I want. And right now, you’re all I want…” He kissed you again, trailing down your neck until he reached your bra. That piece of clothing was gone fast as well, and just his mouth and fingers on your breasts and nipples made you arch up against him, somehow wishing both of your jeans were gone. He noticed and stopped what he was doing, only to take of his jeans, giving you the opportunity to get rid of yours as well.

You didn’t waste that opportunity, throwing it aside, before pulling him back to you. You wanted to feel his lips on yours, his hands on your body. You wanted to feel how he felt, how the muscles moved under his skin and you ran your hands over his back until you finally cupped his ass. And a delightful one it was. You smiled against his lips, something that made him stop for a moment.

“And what makes you smile that much, sweetheart...”, he smirked.

“Just the idea of us, here... and how good you feel under my hands. That’s all.” You laughed as well before placing your hands somewhere else, on his cock, through the fabric of his boxers. Something that did indeed get a reaction from him. “I guess you like that?”

“I’d like it a whole lot more without the boxers, my love, but yes... that’s kind of what we came here for, isn’t it?” He was right, which made you decide to pull down his boxers and take his member in your hand, stroking him a few times. You noticed how he got rid of the underwear and moaned slightly.

“Not too much, Y/N, or you’ll have me come before I had the chance to prove you I am worth keeping.”, he panted, while his hands wandered between your legs, rubbing you through your panties.

That made you moan in return, wanting to feel him completely, not muffled like this. “Take it off... please?”

“I live to please you…”, he teased, before he took it off.

You lifted your hips to help him remove it, and kicked it away as soon as you had the possibility. Now there was nothing but the two of you, no fabric, no others, just him and you, exploring each other. You had to laugh when you found out he was ticklish, but you started to regret teasing him with that when he returned the favour by playing with your nipples for an excruciating long time.   
“Klaus, please... I don’t know how much longer I can stand this...” You arched up your hips to get at least a bit of friction, but he was faster than you and managed to get away in time.

“Do you need anything, love?”, he looked up, as if this wasn’t completely his intention. He was good in playing innocent, you had to give him that. He smiled, waiting for your answer.

“You tease...”, you laughed. “What do you think I need? The guy next door?”

That made him laugh...   
“I would be a bit bummed if after all this trouble I went through he got to finish it, I have to be honest about that.”

You frowned. Just the idea was gross... You just wanted Klaus, not some random… well, you started it, you shouldn’t dwell on it. To divert the attention from that weird side track, you gripped his cock again, stroking it a few times to make him harder.   
“I want you, of course... don’t you think we’ve had enough foreplay by now?”

He smirked.  
“One day I’m going to show you how much foreplay you really can need... one day...”, he teased you. “But not today. I want you as well, Y/N.” He reached over to the nightstand where he had put a package before you started and took out the condom, putting it on. After that he did listen to what you were saying and lined himself up at your entrance, slowly pushing himself inside of you. Once he had gotten into action, he didn’t need a lot of time, and he started to thrust into you immediately.

Exactly what you needed. You tilted your hips to edge him on, one hand tangling in his hair, pulling him towards you to kiss him.   
“I need you, Klaus... I only need you...” You felt how he filled you completely, and it was all you needed. You hooked one leg around his hips to be able to steer him. You lost track of time, you lost track of how much time passed, until you felt your orgasm build between your legs.  
“I’m going to come...” You breathed against his lips, and you felt how he was starting to smile.

He thrusted a bit more forcefully, fingering your clit to give you that last push, and you clenched around him, yelling his name while you came. He did the last few thrusts before coming as well and slumping next to you on the bed.   
“That was amazing, love...”, he managed to get out after you both came down from your high. He pulled out of you, carefully took off the condom and stepped of the bed to dispose of it. When he came back, you both heard both of your phones beep, and Klaus automatically got his out of the pocket of his jeans that were lying discarded on the floor. When he read the text, you saw all the colour leave his face, and he sat down on the bed to make sure he wouldn’t fall down.

“What is it?”, you asked. “Something with your family?”

“Maybe you should check your phone as well...” He clearly didn’t trust it, and he got your phone as well, handing it to you.

_I hope you enjoy being with my son as long as it lasts. It won’t be long..._

“Mikael.” You didn’t need to know the number the text had been sent from. You didn’t want to know how he had gotten yours, but the joy you had been feeling about having sex with Klaus was gone.   
“What does yours say?”

He handed over his phone, and you gave him yours.

_Enjoy it while it lasts, boy. We all know you manage to destroy everything you hold dear. This won’t be an exception._


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus and Y/N try to deal with the aftermath of Mikael's threats.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I've waited for a long time to update the story, and I'm sorry for that! The good news... I managed to finish it completely during NaNo, so it's just waiting for me to check and edit it, which will happen over the next weeks/months.

You both sat down at the edge of your bed, staring at your phones. You were the first one who found back your voice.  
“How…”, was the only thing you could say. How had Mikael known you were sleeping together now? Had he even known or was this some kind of very twisted coincidence, an attempt to get into your heads? Something that worked pretty well, you had to admit.  
“And how did your father get my phone number?”, you suddenly realized, starting to feel a lot less safe than you had felt before. Elijah had it, Rebekah had it, but that was about it when it came to Mikael’s connections and you couldn’t imagine one of those two giving it to Mikael. They all knew how the relations between Mikael and Klaus and therefore between Mikael and you were.

Klaus was clearly realizing the same thing as you were.  
“I got myself a new phone when I moved in here and there is no way I gave the number to Mikael. He must have gotten it somewhere…” He stood up, gathering his clothes and started to get dressed, as if that would make him less vulnerable than walking around naked would leave him.  
“If I find out Elijah did this…” He had apparently ruled out Rebekah as the one passing the information onto Mikael, but his older brother...  
“He’s always so composed… what if he is playing both sides?”

You pulled the cover over you, using the same mechanism as Klaus did to feel safer. Not that it worked…  
“I don’t want to believe that, Klaus. He has tried so hard to get you back. That can’t be only to rat you out to Mikael later?”, you wondered. It would make you feel really betrayed, if that was indeed the case.  
“Do you want me to go and try to find out if he’s behind it?”

He turned around, wanting to say something, something angry, probably, but you cut him off immediately.

“That doesn’t mean I’m gonna talk to Elijah right now, but I might know someone who knows other people…” You realized you had to tell Damon about this. Maybe not about the sex, that would feel kind of awkward, but about the texts. About the threats that were made. And about the suspicions both Klaus and you started to have right now. Maybe he could find out they weren’t right. You wanted them to be false, you wanted Elijah to be on your side. You had really started to like the man over the last few months and losing that… no, not losing it, finding out it never existed, would be too much.

Klaus sat down on the edge of the bed, next to you and took your hand between his.  
“Please don’t listen to anything my father says, love. It’s not true. I don’t want it to be true. I started over, remember? You have witnessed that. I want you. I chose you and I don’t want him to be right.”

You leaned into him, wanting to feel him close. It was so easy to forget about what he was supposed to be, even when you still refused to believe it. It was so easy to believe that this was all there was. Until Mikael had decided to ruin it.  
“I don’t. I’m not going to let him ruin everything we built, ok?”, you said. You had to believe that. Mikael wasn’t right. He couldn’t be.  
“I’m going to ask Damon, Klaus.” The least you could do was to be honest with him.  
“He might not seem like much, but he’s smart and he knows a lot of people. He knew who Mikael was, maybe he can find out something for us.”

He wrapped an arm around you, absentmindedly playing with your hair.  
“I don’t like the idea of involving anyone else in this, but if you think he is able to find out more…” He didn’t finish the sentence, something you took for permission to ask Damon to dig a bit further on this.  
“I can’t do this again... go up against him. Have him talk me down constantly...”

You smiled. “You’ve seen how he is. Do you think he’d still trust me around you if he found out about this some other way? Better if he hears it from me, Klaus.” You could deal with Damon, you knew that. He wasn’t going to like what you were going to tell him, but you’d make clear that this wasn’t Klaus’ fault. You looked at the man next to you, who was already looking at the other room, as if he was getting ready to leave you.  
“Stay? Please?” You didn’t want to be alone right now… you knew you would play all kind of worst case scenarios in your head if you would.  
“I need you by my side now…”

Not that Klaus would be able to stop Mikael if he was going to do more than just invade your phones and your minds, but it felt safer to be together. Something Klaus clearly felt as well.  
“With pleasure…” He crawled in bed with you, embracing you and you laid your head on his shoulder.

“I need you to keep the bad guys away.” Which… was kind of weird, if you thought about it. For most of the world, Klaus would be the bad guy. Then why did you feel safer in his arms than with him away from you?

“And for you, I will, love…”, Klaus whispered, growing quieter. “I will fight every monster that will try to harm you. Tonight and the days to come. Even if that monster is my own father. Sleep, my love.”

-

“He did what?” Damon stared at the phone for far longer than necessary before dropping it on the table again.  
“I don’t care what you say, Y/N. You need to get away from Klaus. Now. He’s bad news.” The concern was clear in his voice, but you didn’t want him to determine what you had to do.

“No, Damon. I wasn’t the only one getting a text. Klaus got one too. And I’m not going to give Mikael what he wants. He wants us apart, because that would hurt Klaus. I…”

Damon slammed the table.  
“And you will be the one ending up hurt if you stay! Don’t you see that?!” Damon leaned back, sighing dramatically as only he could do.  
“I’ve done some digging of my own recently… asked around with some old colleagues of my father, checking if they knew Mikael, and they do. They all say he’s brilliant at his job, but there are more stories…” Damon was restless, didn’t manage to sit in a certain way longer than a few seconds, so after he dropped a silence, he leaned over the table.  
“Don’t tell anyone I said this, ok? It can get some people in danger. But he’s dangerous. No one can ever point out what happened, but there were a few cases where witnesses just disappeared or conveniently dropped their statement. Always on the right time to get Mikael the outcome he wants to have.” His tone dropped from almost angry to more serious, something that didn’t fit Damon at all.  
“I mean it, Y/N. No one has ever been able to prove it, but it’s possible he can come true on the threats he made in that text.”

Yeah… that didn’t do anything to diminish your fear.  
“I get it, but I’m not going to leave him. I don’t want Mikael to win… Klaus and I… we’re just getting somewhere…” You couldn’t help but blush when you said that, probably giving away exactly how well it was going before someone decided to try and interfere.

“Ok, stop. I don’t want to know.” Damon sighed. “I don’t want you to get mixed up in this, ok? But fine… if you’re too stubborn to end it, we’ll just have to make sure it’s not gonna happen again. First course of action… change your phone number. We don’t want you to be that easy to reach. Don’t give it out to anyone you don’t trust and that includes any Mikaelson other than the one you’re living with. I still don’t trust him, but you do, so… His siblings? Off limits.”

You nodded. You didn’t like what Damon was saying, but you knew he was right. You had no idea what part Elijah or Rebekah had played in this, but if they had been involved, you needed to shut them out. Call Elijah with a blocked number if you needed to contact him, even when that would raise suspicion.  
“You’re right. I’ll get that done this afternoon. And I’ll have Klaus do the same. I just don’t think he can keep his number from those two, but if Mikael manages to threaten him and stops doing it to me, we might now where the leak is.” You really hoped everything would stop after just that, but you were afraid it was only the beginning.

“Call me as soon as you have it, ok? I don’t want to be kept in the dark right now.” Damon had never been more serious than he was now and it was exactly that that was scaring you. He seemed to think the threat was a real one, not just an overzealous father trying to put his son in his place.

“Still think Klaus is the evil one here?”, you wanted to know.

“I don’t know anymore, Y/N. I know what you think and I know what I’ve heard. Maybe you’re right. Maybe Mikael framed Klaus, I just… maybe the son is just as bad as the father. I only know for sure I don’t want you involved in any of this.” He stood up, grabbing you by the arm.  
“Come on. I’m gonna help you get that new phone and after that we’re going to get a drink. I think we both need one right now. Where’s your knight in shining armour? Because I’d even want to go that far to invite him to come along. He seems to have the same problems as you.”, Damon laughed, trying to break the tension.

“Talking to his brother.” You shrugged, letting Damon pull you along.  
“I’ll text him to come and find us when he’s done, ok?”

Damon walked you to the nearest phone shop, searching through the different options as if he did this regularly.  
“As long as you do it with your old number. He’s with his brother, remember? We don’t know where he stands.”

“Right... “, you frowned. “This is going to be more complicated than I thought, isn’t it?” You just had to make sure not to throw the old simcard out but use it from time to time. You’d figure this out… you hoped.  
“By the time this is finished, I can apply at the CIA as a professional spy, I believe… Great, exactly what I always wanted.” You packed your new stuff while you send Klaus a text. You started laughing when you got one back immediately.  
“I think he’s just as nervous as I am over this whole mess. He’ll be there in about half an hour. They’re almost done.”

-

And indeed, after the time Klaus had stated had passed, you watched him walking into the bar you and Damon had occupied. No matter what was going on, his entrance made your heart skip a beat and the moment he hugged and kissed you was enough to make it all worth it.

Damon seemed to disagree and even winced a bit. “Come on people… you have company.”

Klaus just laughed.  
“You can’t blame me for greeting my girlfriend like this. I mean… have you seen her, mate?” He slid down in the booth, next to you and ordered a whiskey.  
“I do need a drink though…”, he sighed, eyeing Damon suspiciously at first.  
“Did she clue you in?”

Damon nodded.  
“Each and every dirty detail. I don’t like your father very much, ok? And I’d rather have her as far away from you as possible.”

You rolled your eyes. This was going to be a great afternoon if they started like this already. You didn’t want them to fight. Both Damon and Klaus were the two people you depended on at this moment. You barely trusted anyone else after what happened yesterday.

“I completely understand that…” Klaus surprised you by agreeing with Damon on this. Your boyfriend nodded at the waiter when he brought his drink, before turning to Damon.  
“Listen Damon… I do not mean her any harm, but I completely understand why you think her involvement with me will get her in danger. It already has.” Klaus looked at his phone, as if he could see the text from here. “But that was not my intention. If it were up to me, I would have severed all ties with my father. He apparently does not want that and is set on ruining my life.”

Even further… you thought as an addition to that sentence. Mikael had ruined Klaus’ life before, because you were still sure there was more to the trial than the facts stated. Maybe this whole thing would be a good opener to talk about that, once the two of you were alone again.  
“What did Elijah say?”, you were curious to know.

“I didn’t ask about it.”, Klaus said. “Not directly, at least. And he acted the same as always. I can hardly imagine him being behind it, Y/N. I know he is good in putting on a poker face, but this good?” Klaus frowned. “Maybe I just don’t want him to. Anyway. I gave him my new number, but not yours, like you asked.”

“Great.”, Damon interrupted. “So your brother is still the big innocent while she has to watch over her shoulder to make sure your father doesn’t get his filthy hands on her and does something to her. She wouldn’t be the first one…”

Klaus snapped up, looking in fear at Damon.  
“What are you talking about?”

Damon sighed.  
“Don’t you tell me you know nothing about your father’s shenanigans, ok? I’ve heard some things about him, and they aren’t pretty. Mostly for people standing in his way.” He raised his hands. “Ok, maybe there’s no prove, but there’s smoke everywhere if you know where to look.. There’s probably fire as well.”

Klaus’ hands shook when he leaned over the table. He grabbed his glass, apparently to have something in his hands to distract him.  
“In case you missed it, I have been kind of out of everything for the last five years. Before that, I was a teenager and not exactly my father’s favourite, so no, I have no idea what he did.” He bit his lip, sitting up straight again.  
“Not that I’m very surprised though…” He shook his head and turned to you.  
“Be careful, ok? I don’t know if he already knows where we live, but he’s influential…”

You nodded.  
“I can’t do more than I do now, can I? He’s not gonna get my phone number and I’m not going to hide out for the rest of the month. I have a job, remember? And now let’s just get drunk and forget about this whole drama for a moment? That’s what we came here to do…”

“Sounds like a plan…”, Damon grumbled. “As long as you remember to call me every day, I’m in for everything that involves a lot of booze.”


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus and Y/N are getting really comfortable with each other, hoping Mikael's warning was just a one time problem

“I’m sorry for him, ok?” You had made hit home, barely. You weren’t drunk, but you had come close.

Klaus clearly was better at drinking than you were. He had been the one to make sure you got up the stairs safely, he had been the one seeing Damon out and he was the one putting you on the couch now.  
“It’s ok. He’s just looking out for you. I actually like it.” He shrugged. “I could only wish that I had someone who was that protective over me. Trust me, I don’t mind... I’ll get you a few glasses of water, by the way. Don’t protest, you’ll thank me in the morning.” He didn’t even wait for your answer but walked to the kitchen, only to get back with two big glasses of water.

You knew he was right, you knew you would be a lot less hung-over this way, but you just felt like protesting.  
“Do you have any idea how often I have to pee tonight after that?”

He wasn’t impressed. Of course he wasn’t. Somehow it was really hard to get Klaus to doubt anything he did, unless you were his father. He was just smirking when he sat down next to you.  
“I don’t really care. I just don’t want to deal with you in the morning when you have a major headache. You don’t get it yet, but this is entirely selfish of me.”, he grinned, amusing himself over your state.   
“How did you get through college if you get drunk so easily?”

You shrugged, taking the glass of water he held up in front of you and starting to drink it.   
“Sober.” It was the simplest answer to his question. A true answer as well.  
“Never cared much for getting drunk back then, to be honest. I only started with that a few years ago and…”, you frowned. “I wanted to say I perfected it with you, but with you sitting here, laughing at me and me almost passed out, I don’t think I mastered it yet.”

He started laughing.   
“Nope. You need a bit more practice, I think. We’ll work on that, later.” He sat next to you and you rested your head on his shoulder. It prevented to world from turning, literally, in this case.   
“I know he just does it to protect me, I just don’t think he has the right to insult you while he was that.” It had been better after you had suggested to just get drunk, but you hadn’t missed the looks Damon kept shooting at Klaus. And you hadn’t forgotten the fact that you had to check in with your friend every day. Yes, you understood why, but you still didn’t like it because of what it meant for Damon’s trust in Klaus.

“I probably would do the same in his case, love. You’ve known each other for years… I come barging into your life, immediately living in the same flat with you and he doesn’t even know who I am.” He frowned. “Well, he thinks to know who I am, and that doesn’t exactly make any of it any better. You have gotten used to my past, Y/N, but not everyone has. And with my father who doesn’t seem to want to forget about it either...” He fell silent.

You hadn’t really asked him how he felt about all of this. You had seen how it had affected him yesterday, but he hadn’t talked about it.

“He will destroy me if he gets what he wants, sweetheart…” His voice had lost all the amusement it had before, when he was teasing you.   
“He’ll never forgive me for what I’ve done. No matter what he has to do, he’s going to give me what he thinks I deserve. Elijah made that pretty clear.”

“Elijah?” You almost spit out the water you were drinking but you managed not to choke on it.  
“Elijah’s on your father’s side? Damon already said something like it, but I didn’t want to believe it!”

Klaus shook his head.  
“No, he isn’t. I don’t believe he is, at least. He was just accidentally at father’s house yesterday and he heard a phone call between my father and Finn. Apparently it wasn’t pretty. And no, I’m not going to repeat what he said. Hearing it once was bad enough.” He took the glass from you when you finished it, only to replace it with the second one.   
“Drink this, darling. And go to bed after that. It has been a long day… we both need a good night’s sleep. We can talk more in the morning.”

You started to drift away when you were still lying on his shoulders. How you drank the rest of your water, you barely remembered, only that a strong pair of arms lifted you once you were finished and put you to bed. You held on to him when he wanted to leave.  
“Don’t leave me alone? I need you here…”

That was all that was needed to make him stay.

-

When you woke, you were squinting against the light that was streaming into your room. You still felt the steady breaths of Klaus under you… you had no idea when it had happened, but somewhere during the night you had started to use him as a pillow. You didn’t dare to move now, afraid you’d wake him, but you really needed to pee. Well… he was the one forcing you to drink the water last night… maybe he shouldn’t complain when he would wake up because of it. Carefully you started to roll away from him, until you were suddenly caught in his arms.

“Good morning, love… how’s the head?” He looked at you, smiling broadly, not sleepy at all.

“The head is… fine, actually, thanks. And weren’t you asleep?”

He shook his head.   
“Why should I sleep when I had such a great view? It’s a waste of time… and you’re very cute when you’re asleep, love.”

You were suddenly alarmed.  
“I wasn’t drooling, wasn’t I? Because that would be…”

“Adorable?”, he broke you off. “Because, yes, you were. A bit. I don’t mind, ok?”

Damn it. You had wanted it to stay cute for a while, not to get real this fast. But honestly, you seemed to have bigger problems with it than he had, so it was probably fine.   
“I still need to use the bathroom, so… if you can let me go for one moment?”

He didn’t listen to that. Of course he didn’t…  
“Only if you promise to come back after that. It’s a Sunday. We’re both free and I’d like to spend a lot of that free time in this bed.”

“Oh?’, you raised your eyebrows when you pulled his arms away from you. “And do those plans involve any sleep, or do I have to worry about the wicked ideas you have?”, you laughed when you stepped out of the bed, only to be held back by one hand of Klaus gripping your wrist.

“I’m only telling you when you promise to come back, love.”, he teased you, but his eyes made clear it was indeed more than just sleep.

“I’ll be right back. It’ll be better if I don’t have constant attention for my bladder, believe me.”

-

Ok. You had to admit you really liked what Klaus had thought out for you after you came back to bed. You were lying in his arms, almost drowsy when it wasn’t for your skin tingling from the work his tongue had been doing during the last… you didn’t even know how long, you lost track of time.   
“I’d want the world to be like this forever. Just you and me and…”

“A whole lot of sex?” His voice sounded lazy and his finger tracing patterns on your shoulder gave you goosebumps.   
“I know what you mean though. It’s just peaceful. No one to disturb us. No one to tell us that whatever it is we are doing is wrong, or stupid, or… is that your stomach?” He broke off what he was doing, putting his hand on your belly that was indeed rumbling.

You blushed. You hadn’t even noticed you were hungry after Klaus had almost made you forget your name -that man’s tongue could do more than you had ever expected someone to do with you- but now your stomach started to rumble you couldn’t deny it anymore.   
“Apparently. You’ve been so mind blowing at what you did that I never even noticed until now, but I think I can use some breakfast.” You leaned over to the nightstand to check the time on your phone. “Or brunch or whatever we want to call it. It’s 1pm already, so…”

He still refused to let you go, his arm wrapped around you, his face buried in your hair.   
“One more moment, ok? One more moment where we pretend the world does not exist. I know we’re not going out today, but I like the thought that it is just you and me, my love. When we’re in the kitchen, we’ll hear your neighbours.”

“Which is only fair, I think. They must have heard me scream earlier…” You snuggled into his shoulder for one more moment, also to hide your reddening cheeks. You weren’t that loud, usually, but this time…

Klaus chuckled.   
“And what a scream it was. I do intend to get that out of you a few times more. I quite enjoyed hearing it, you know.” With those words he let go of you, pressed a kiss on your forehead and pulled the cover off the two of you. He got out of bed, put on a robe and threw you one as well.  
“Let’s just cover ourselves in case that lady from across the street is peering again.”

You started to laugh.   
“You know, having you naked in my living room waving at her might stop her from doing that.” You eyed his body before he closed the robe.  
“It’s a pretty impressive view, you know.”

He raised his eyebrows.  
“I never knew you were that exhibitionistic, darling.” He shook his head. “Not going to happen. She’ll just buy binoculars and see if she can find a way to see what the two of us are doing.”

“I’m not exhibitionistic.”, you laughed when you finally got out of bed, put on a warm robe and stole a kiss from Klaus before making your way to the living room.   
“I never thought you would have problems with it. I never noticed anything.”

He rolled his eyes before following you.   
“That’s because I enjoy being around you. Do you think I used to walk around naked in prison? No way in hell…” It was one of the first times he casually mentioned his time in jail, something you noticed but decided not to comment on. Let him come with the stories on his time.

Maybe you could find the right time to voice your doubts as well. All in due time.  
“So… breakfast…” You were standing in front of the fridge, checking what you had and what you could make of it, before you felt yourself pulled aside.

“No, love. I took care of you before, I’ll do it now as well, breakfast is on me today. You just sit and be beautiful. I know you can take care of me, you’ve done that for months now. I want to return the favour, even when it’s just for now.” He grabbed a carton of eggs and some bacon before he shoved you out of the kitchen.

“Can I take a quick shower before you’re done?”, you wondered and after a nod from Klaus you headed there, losing yourself under the hot water for a moment. You didn’t take too long, but it felt good to be clean, even when you had the feeling that wouldn’t last long after you were done with breakfast. After all… you were promised most of the day in bed and today that was definitely not to catch up with sleep. You liked it. You had spend too long without a relationship and this change of events had been very necessary. When you had dried your hair and wrapped a towel around you, you walked back to the living room. Suddenly you saw an envelope on the floor that someone must have shoved under the door. You didn’t even think about it, but picked it up and put it on the table before you checked how far Klaus was.

“Almost done, love. Can you put these plates on the table for me?” He went back to the pans to prevent the bacon from burning. He put the eggs on a plate and edged you on when he noticed you were still looking at him.   
“I’m not going to disappear in the next minute, Y/N. Come on. I’m hungry too now.”

That got you out of your stare. When you put the plates on the table, you glanced through the window.   
“Yup. She’s looking. Maybe I should wave?” You decided not to, you didn’t want it to become awkward the next time you met her when you went food shopping. Besides… you smelled the food by now which made you lose all attention to anything else but that food.   
“O, it smells delicious…” You wanted to grab a piece of bacon already, but Klaus smacked your hand.

“Don’t be so impatient. Let’s just eat together, ok?” He sat down as well, served the both of you and for a few minutes, you were both quiet, enjoying the food.   
“What’s this?” Klaus suddenly saw the envelope.

“I don’t know yet.”, you shrugged, putting another piece of pancake in your mouth.   
“Oh, this is so good. You’ll have to make them every weekend…” You nodded at the envelope.   
“You can open it. Maybe one of the neighbours are giving a party anytime soon. Someone shoved it under the door, I think they didn’t feel like going down to the mailbox or something.” You were too busy enjoying the last bit of the pancakes that were still on your plate to pay attention to Klaus’ face.

“Y/N…”, he said softly and the tone he used made you look up from your attempt to mop up the last bit of syrup.   
“This isn’t one of your neighbours.” He stared at the handwriting on the envelope before handing it to you.   
“I know this too well. It’s my father’s.”

You suddenly dropped the letter as if it were some kind of bomb. That was one way to ruin a perfectly good day, but that was probably exactly what Mikael wanted.  
“How does he know we live here?”

Klaus just shrugged, clearly shocked.  
“Do you… do you want to open it? I don’t think I dare to…” He stood up, walking over to the window, staring outside and you joined him. Just before you got there, you saw his shoulders tense.  
“What is it?” You still had the closed envelope in your hand. You didn’t even know if you wanted to know what was in there. It wouldn’t be good. Somehow you could more or less guess what the gist of it would be.

“Kol.” He just said, nodding towards a lonely figure walking in the parking lot. Klaus was right. When the man looked up, you could recognize the handsome young man who had been sulking through the family lunch a few weeks ago.   
“He must have delivered it. Father’s good little errand boy.”

You could hear the disdain in his voice, but not just that. There seemed to be a bit of longing as well. He was hurt because Kol had gotten his father’s approval, while he… what his father, or the man he thought of as his father thought of him was probably written down in the letter.

A letter you decided to finally open. It wouldn’t do a lot to leave it like that. The both of you would just stare it at as if you could make it disappear like that. The good thing about it was that it was short. The bad thing… well, practically everything else. The handwriting was elegant, almost old fashioned. Something that fit Mikael well, as far as you knew the man.

_Son,_

_Clearly you haven’t heeded the warning I have sent you earlier. You don’t deserve the happiness you are living in right now and I have no doubt it will be short lived. For one time in your life, be the wiser party and end this nonsense before bad things will happen. To you or the girl you’re dragging down with you._

It was signed elegantly, almost an insult to the threats that were written in it. Klaus crumpled the paper in his hand, stalking towards the bin and throwing it away.   
“So… at least he has been so nice to give a last warning. Are you throwing me out now? I wouldn’t blame you…”

You made a mental note to retrieve the letter in case you needed evidence later, but first you hugged Klaus, trying to distract him with a kiss.   
“I’m not going to let him chase me away, Klaus. We’re in this together now. I don’t want him to get what he wants.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y/N and Klaus try to pick up their lives after Mikael's threats. There is however still a skeleton in the closet that couldn't come out on a more inconvenient moment

“I’m leaving.” Klaus was stuffing the few belongings he had gathered in a bag when you entered his room the day after the letter had arrived, surprised about what you were seeing. The rest of your lazy Sunday hadn’t been as comfortable as you had wanted it to be. There hadn’t been a return to the bed you might have counted on before. Instead, Klaus had turned the letter over and over in his hands before you took it away and tried to distract him by putting on Netflix.  
“I can’t put you in this danger, Y/N. I’ve thought about it tonight and I just can’t.”

“So that’s why you sneaked out of bed this morning?” You yawned. It was still early and you had to get to work. You didn’t feel like having this discussion right now, let alone having to convince him to stay, so you just grabbed the bag out of his hands and threw it on the ground.  
“And you’re not leaving. I don’t want to come home in an empty house just because of your stupid father, ok? I’m stubborn and he’s not going to get what he wants. Not when he’s just lying and intimidating and you’re clearly the better one out of the two of you.” You took his face between your hands and forced him to look at you. You tried to calm down your rage. It was direct towards Mikael, not Klaus. “I do not want to lose you, Klaus Mikaelson. Do you hear me? Don’t give him what he wants.”

Klaus sat down on the floor, back against the bed and wrapped his arms around his knees.  
“I just feel like that little boy again who can never do anything right. No matter what I do, he’ll get to destroy it. He found out where we lived, Y/N! Do you realize that? We never told anyone, but he found out anyway.”

You nodded. You had realized it. It had been the only thing on your mind after the first shock of reading that note was over. Mikael knew where you lived. Not just the building, also the exact apartment. The safety you thought you had at home was gone. It wasn’t just your phone he had managed to infiltrate, it was your home, your safe spot. What would be next?   
“I know. But I still don’t want you to leave. Yes, Mikael will probably leave me alone when you do that because he’s after you, not me. He’s just using me to get to you. Don’t you think I don’t get that? I just don’t want you to be miserable. I know I took you in because you didn’t have anywhere else to go and that it was just pity at that time. But that’s not why you’re still here. You know that and I know that as well. I love you and I’m not giving up now it got a bit harder.”

Klaus smiled, the first smile he managed this morning. He grabbed your hand, pulling it close to him and kissing it.  
“I’d be lost without you, love. Fine… I’m not leaving. I won’t give him that satisfaction. Just promise me one thing?”

“Everything you want.”, you said relieved that you weren’t going to lose him.

“Text Damon what happened. He needs to know in case father is serious with his threats. I will talk to Elijah and ask him if Kol could have gotten our phone numbers from him. If Kol is father’s minion, that means Elijah might indeed be on our side and we are going to need him, Y/N. We’re going to need everyone we can get. Elijah, Damon. Maybe even Rebekah, even when I would like to leave my little sister out of this.”

“Deal.” You took out your phone and texted Damon immediately. Klaus was right. You couldn’t win this all by yourself. Mikael was too powerful for that so you needed to stick together, to get people to join your team. You needed to trust others, no matter how hard that was.   
“And now I’m going to work. You should do the same. Don’t endanger your reintegration because of this, ok? You know he’d find a way to use that against you.”

“Good point.” Klaus stood up and gathered the things he needed for work. “I’ll see you tonight?”

You nodded.  
“I’ll see you tonight.”

-

The day was long and never seemed to end. You had to text Damon about every hour that you were still ok and that you weren’t going to let him babysit the two of you in case Mikael was going to do something else. In your break you just grabbed your phone and called him.  
“I’m fine, Damon! I know the letter was awful and threatening and…”

“Which is exactly why you have to pay attention!”

“Let me finish! I am paying attention, but I’m not putting Klaus out on the street to the mercy of that man. I love him… he’s not just some fling who happens to be good in bed. It’s more than that…”

“Too much information. I don’t want to know it. All I want is you being safe. Check in with me tonight, ok?”

“Ok. I don’t expect any problems until then… He gave us two days after the phone calls as well, remember?”

“I remember. Vividly. Don’t do anything stupid.”

 

Typically Damon. You could already imagine him filing through files you didn’t even want him to check, seeing if he could dig something up that would put Mikael on the block -not that he was going to find it… the man would have never lasted this long if he had gotten sloppy. You just didn’t want to be the next name on the list of unexplainable victims that happened to be in Mikael Mikaelson’s way. You shook your head, trying to clear it. There was work to do and there wasn’t anything you could explain to your colleagues who had started to watch you suspiciously after the incessant stream of texts this morning.

-

It had been a long day. You were glad when you stepped through the door and were home. You hadn’t found any suspicious notes in the mailbox, there was nothing on the doormat and your phone had only almost exploded because of Damon, not because of someone threatening you or Klaus again. That was the first day you had gotten through.  
“I’m home!”, you yelled when you saw Klaus’ coat already on the coat rack in the hallway. You threw your bag in the corner and walked to the living room where Klaus was looking out of the window, looking tense. You wrapped your arms around him, but he shred them off, turning around.

“Care to explain this?” His voice sounded distant, almost angry and his eyes missed the sparkle you loved so much. He walked over to the table with long strides, throwing a package of paper on it.  
“I found this in the bottom drawer. How long has it been there, Y/N? Tell me!”

You felt how the blood drained from your face. The file you had tried to hide from him for such a long time was just lying there, out in the open. And you didn’t have a good excuse on why it was there or why you hadn’t told him.

“Tell me!”, he yelled again, his tone cold. “I trusted you and all this time you had been checking me out without telling me about it? I trusted you, Y/N! I thought you were different!”

“I can explain…”, you tried feebly. “I…” You had a good reason to get those files in the first place, you just couldn’t think of any excuse why you still hadn’t told him about it. “They’re there for a couple of months now. I got them a few days after you moved in.” You didn’t dare to look him in the eye and sat down at the table, afraid your legs wouldn’t support you anymore.

“I get that…” He calmed down a bit. “In that time, I get that you wanted to know more. I get that you wanted to know who you were living with, but now? Why have you never told me? Why are they still here?!”

You just shrugged.  
“Because I didn’t believe what it said. Because I was looking for a good moment to talk about it with you. But that moment never came. I’m sorry, ok?” You looked up to him, still hurt by the pain your betrayal caused in his eyes.   
“I should have told you. I know that, but…” You stood up and walked towards Klaus, trying to grab his hand, but he shook you off.

“I need a moment, Y/N. I thought I could trust you, but now? I don’t know.” He walked to his room and you needed to follow him. He sat down on the bed, grabbed the bag you had thrown aside this morning and started packing it again.

“You’re leaving?” You had expected a lot, screaming, fighting, you didn’t know what… but him just getting up and leave?”  
“Where will you stay?”

He shrugged. “I’ll find a place. I’m not that sad puppy you picked up out of prison anymore. I’ll call Elijah, maybe he and Katherine have a spare room and if not, I can call someone from work. I need some distance from you, ok? I need to figure out a few things before... before I know if I can come back.” He stood up and walked out of the door, without even looking back. Without a greeting, without a kiss.

_Before I know if I can come back._ The sentence echoed in your mind. If, not when. He didn’t even know if he’d come back to you. You wanted to follow him, but he slammed the door in your face and you knew it was useless to run after him. He was too stubborn to give in. You just had to let him go for now, maybe call Elijah later to check if he really was staying there. Maybe that was better. Maybe his family could take better care of him than you could. Still… it sucked. It sucked that the flat felt so big for just you, even when that had never bothered you before he had moved in. It sucked that you couldn’t even find the right pot to cook, because Klaus had rearranged the cabinets after he had started to do most of the cooking. You already gave up before even trying to cook a meal, calling for a pizza instead. It sucked that Netflix was giving you suggestions based on what Klaus had watched, reminding you with every new movie that he wasn’t there to watch it with you. You settled for some dumb superhero movie where you didn’t have to think. You missed snuggling into Klaus and you even gave up finishing the movie and went to bed early. A too cold, too empty bed without Klaus in it. He was a better pillow than the normal ones you had lying there and you ended up throwing them out, trying to hit something. Not that it made you feel better. It just sucked. Big time.

And the worst thing was? This was all your fault. You had managed to do what Mikael wanted. You had broken the two of you up. You had managed to do what Mikael thought Klaus would. You had become Mikael’s tool without wanting to.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikael and Kol get into action

You hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep that night. You had tossed and turned until there was no possible comfortable position left to sleep in. You had seen practically all hours on the alarm clock until you finally fell asleep. That had been more in the early morning than still at night. Only two or three hours later your alarm went off and no matter how much you just wanted to throw the damned thing out of the window and forget about the rest of the world, you knew that wasn’t an option. You wanted to call your mother, wanted her to come in and tell you it was ok, that you didn’t have to do anything today, but you knew she wouldn’t. There was a job waiting for you, one that you couldn’t call off with the message that you had chased your boyfriend away and wanted to wallow in sorrow now. So you dragged yourself out of bed, almost got lost in your own kitchen while making your breakfast -you had gotten too used to Klaus arranging that for you- and with a bit too much makeup to mask the fact that you had barely slept, you headed off to work. You didn’t register what was in the paper that you were reading when you were in the subway, but you did manage to get off at the right station which was already quite the accomplishment if someone would ask you.

“Hello, darling…” The words were familiar, something Klaus could have said, but the voice was different, the tone was different. Kol was standing next to the exit of the subway, clearly waiting for you.

You tensed, looking around if you could see somewhere else you could go. If you could see a colleague who happened to come out of the same station. Kol frightened you. Even when you weren’t together with Klaus anymore, you had no idea if Kol knew that. And if that would stop Mikael from doing something. You knew Mikael was behind this.

“Oh no, darling, you’re not going anywhere…” He grabbed your arm in a painful grip and steered you away from where you had to go.   
“We’re going to have a little chat.”

“But… I have to go to work…”, you tried to protest, but he was too strong.  
“I’m going to scream…”

He suddenly stopped and pushed you against the wall.  
“You’re not.”, he simply said. “You see… if you’re just coming with me and have that talk, we might do this the friendly way. If you don’t… well, I’m not too fond of you, so… don’t tempt me. I wouldn’t be too heartbroken if I had to hurt you to get what I want.” He pulled you along into an empty street where your screams probably hadn’t made a lot of difference anyway, so against your better judgment you decided to do what he wanted. Maybe this was just some stupid intimidation attempt to make you reconsider your relationship with Klaus, one that wouldn’t work because Klaus was already gone. Everything that Mikael wanted to break you had already broken.   
“There we are…” Kol stopped in front of a big car you hadn’t even noticed in your fear, opened the door and pushed you in the back before closing the door again and walking to the driver’s seat.

You tried to open the door in that time, but they were locked from the inside. You started to feel desperate. This didn’t feel like just a little chat. This felt more like an abduction.   
“I never said I was willing to have that chat somewhere else, Kol. Let me out! Now!”

“Or what? You’ll call your boyfriend?” He smiled in the rear view mirror. “Go for it, darling. I’d like to see you try. Haven’t you thought that might be exactly what I’m trying to achieve? And you can stop trying to open the doors. It’s not going to work.”

You slumped back in the seat while you crossed your arms. You weren’t going to call Klaus. Or Damon. You didn’t want them in danger and that was exactly what Kol wanted. He didn’t want to play with you. You were just a means to hurt Klaus. But maybe Kol, or Mikael, or whoever was behind this would let you go after that chat Kol said he wanted to have with you.

Kol raised his eyebrows.   
“No phone call?” He twisted his arm to the back, his hand open. “Then I want you to hand over your phone. You had your one chance, you are not going to get another one.”

“And if I don’t do that?” This was absurd. You weren’t being abducted. That just happened in movies, not to you. Not by some weird brother of your ex.

“I’ll park the car here and I’ll make you. You’re not going to like that, darling, believe me.” He already steered the car to the side, slowing down in case you were going to make him do it.

You crossed your arms again, determined not to roll over as easily as he wanted you to.   
“Then do it. I’m done here. I was fine with having that chat, everything else you did crossed the line.”

Kol rolled his eyes.  
“As you wish. Do not ever say I haven’t warned you in advance.” He parked the car and got out.

Maybe you had a chance when he opened your door. Shove him out of the way and run. Maybe you’d manage to get away from him far enough to reach a store or whatever there was in this neighbourhood.

Unfortunately Kol had gotten the same ideas and he opened the other back door, sitting down next to you and immediately taking your wrists in his strong hands.   
“You will listen to me, Y/N. If you think you can fool me, you’re wrong. I’m not the nice guy here, you’re mistaking me for my brother.” He smirked. “No, not your lover, the other one. Elijah. I’ve seen how you two are like two peas in a pod, doing everything you can to get Nik back on the right track. Well… bad luck for you. He’s not going to get there. He doesn’t even know how to do it. A lost cause, that bastard.” He shoved you away, against the windows, banging your head on the glass, before reaching into your pocket and fishing out your phone before you had even realized what he was doing. “I’m the mean brother, in case you hadn’t noticed it yet. I’m not very fond of solving everything by talking, like Elijah does. I’m the sportsman of the family. I prefer action.”

It was then that you really started to become afraid. This wasn’t going to be the talk you feared it was going to be. This was going to be much worse.  
“What do you want with me then, if it’s not talking?” You hoisted yourself up, feeling the back of your head to check if you weren’t bleeding. “There’s not much I can do...”

Kol just shrugged.  
“Teaching you a lesson. Teaching Nik a lesson. He took my mother from me when I was just a kid. Why shouldn’t I take you from him?”

You started to laugh, tired of all of this. Tired of the threats you had gotten over the last week, tired of this whole twisted family business you suddenly found yourself in the middle of, tired of all the misunderstanding.   
“You should have come a few days earlier for that, ok? He left, last night. He’s not gonna come for me, if that’s what you’re hoping for.”

Kol just smirked.   
“And I should believe that sob story? Very convenient timing, don’t you think? If he would have left, he would have a day earlier, when I left you guys that note. But he didn’t play the knight in white armour then, didn’t he? That’s because he’s not. He doesn’t care what happens with you. He doesn’t care about anything. And I was right. He didn’t seem to do anything with that. I’m sorry love… nothing has changed. Except that I may have to use a bit more force to get you where you have to go in one piece. So one piece of advice from my side... don’t move. Or I’ll hit you a lot harder than you just hit the window. Believe me, I’ve been itching to do that ever since Elijah dragged me to that bloody family lunch I didn’t want to be in the first place.” He ducked under the chair.

You didn’t dare to move this time, afraid of what he’d do. Afraid of how he would hurt you. You weren’t going to get out of this by force… you had to be smart. Because no matter what Kol thought, Klaus wasn’t coming to rescue you. He wouldn’t even notice you were gone. No one would. Maybe work would call, but that would be all. Damon? How long would it take before he’d come into action once he hadn’t heard from you today? But he wouldn’t expect that call until tonight… And you didn’t want him involved in all this. That was never going to end well. This was going to be a problem. And you had to be smart to solve it, because you were pretty sure Kol was a lot stronger and a lot meaner than you were.

Kol got up, a roll of duct tape in his hands.  
“Time to make sure you’re going to do as I want, love. Now… give me your hands.” He cocked his head, waiting impatiently for what you were going to do. You could see he was almost hoping you’d put up a fight. He wanted that possibility to hurt you. His hatred for Klaus went so far he’d hurt everyone he could get his hands on, only to hurt his brother.

“Is that really necessary?”, you asked, while you did stretch out your hands to him. You weren’t going to give him the opportunity to do what he so wanted to do. You winced when he grabbed your hands and started to wind the tape around it. It was tight, it was uncomfortable, it almost hurt.

“Necessary?”, he shrugged. “Maybe not. But I prefer being safety over being sorry. No matter how much you don’t want it, you will come with me. No tricks, no help from outside. So don’t look outside longingly… the windows are tinted. No one will see a thing.” He finished taping your hands, nodded satisfied and stepped out again, only to get back to the steering wheel.   
“We’re all set to go..”, he smirked before starting the car and driving on.

“How did you get our phone numbers?” You couldn’t help but be curious about it. You were pretty sure by now Elijah didn’t have anything to do with it. You just wanted to be sure of it. You didn’t _want_ Elijah to have anything to do with this whole dirty business. You wanted the friendship you thought the two of you had to be real. You needed it to be real…

“Easy, love. Elijah isn’t that possessive over his phone. When father asked me if I could get those numbers, it was a simple enough task to steal it from him, get them and pass them on to him. Maybe you should be more careful who you give them out to.” He steered easily into the city’s traffic, driving in the direction of the neighbourhood you knew Mikael lived in.

You were relieved though. Elijah didn’t know anything. He was still on your side in all this drama. You only had Kol and Mikael against you, even when that was already scary enough. Finally you decided to just relax in the back of the car. You weren’t going to get out, Kol had made that very clear, and on the roads you were driving now… even if you managed to open the door, you had a bigger chance to die in traffic than to get out in one piece.  
“And my flat? Have you actually been following me around? Otherwise you wouldn’t have known I would get out of the subway here…” Apparently you had no safe places anymore. Not your flat, not your work, not even the commute between the two. How long had they been preparing this?

Kol just shrugged.   
“You have no idea how easy you can get some information if you know the right crowd, darling. Yes, I have been following you a few times, but only to confirm what we already knew. Sometimes it does pay off to be rich and powerful, you know? Nik will find out soon enough what he gave up when he took mother from us.”

That… was not very reassuring. Mikael had everyone who meant something in his pocket, which meant he felt himself powerful enough to get away with abduction? You pulled your wrists again, only to feel there was absolutely no wiggle room.   
“And what if Klaus wasn’t the one killing your mother?”, you tried, which only made Kol make the next turn sharper, almost toppling you over.

“Don’t play that game with me…”, he said in a threatening tone. “You won’t succeed. I know what you’re trying to do… I overheard Elijah telling it to Rebekah and it is NOT true. No matter how you want to defend your lover boy, I know what happened. Father told me and he was right. Everything fits with his story. It was typically Klaus… only thinking of himself, never one thought for the rest of the family, for father or for mother! Now shut up if you know what is good for you, or I will take some of that tape and stick it over your mouth. Trust me, you don’t want me to.”

No… you didn’t, so you did as you were told, sitting silently in the back, waiting for what was still to come.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y/N tries to talk herself out of a very uncomfortable situation, but Mikael seems unwilling to give in.

You tried to flex your arms when you were put down on a chair inside, painful where Kol had gripped you to lead you inside, but you were quickly stopped by Klaus’ younger brother when he tied your hands behind your back before he tied your legs to the legs of the chair.

“Do you want her gagged?”, he asked his father who was standing in the opening of the door, observing everything that happened with an amused grin on his face. If you hadn’t already known Mikael had been behind this, your doubts about that were gone the moment Kol had lead you inside the house that had been his goal all along.

“Not yet. I do wish to talk to her first. I don’t want to be accused of not giving her the opportunity to plead her case.”, Mikael said with a voice that was as cold as his look.

“Please, just let me go…” You were ready to beg by now. You knew no one would be coming for you. Klaus wouldn’t come back and Damon? He wouldn’t contact you before tonight. And you didn’t even know what he would do if you wouldn’t answer. Besides, even if they would miss you, where would they go? You didn’t even know where you were. It was some small cottage not too far away from the Mikaelson house, but that was all you knew.   
“If you let me go now I promise not to tell anyone…”

“And who is even going to believe you if you would talk, girl?” Mikael paced the room where they had put you, stopping right in front of you. He looked down at you as if he saw a bit of dirt that had to be removed. That was probably all you were for him.  
“Do you have any idea who you are dealing with? Do you truly believe anyone will believe you when you tell them what happened here? They won’t. So for your own safety and sanity, I’d strongly advise you not to, even if I were to let you walk.”

“Why won’t they?”, you spat out, trying to wriggle your arms free, without result. Kol must have been a boy scout or something like that, because his knots were uncomfortably tight and impossible to get out of.   
“Because you are the high and mighty lawyer and I don’t have a famous name? Or a big house, or a lot of money? Why are you even doing this?”

“Because, girl…” He bent over to you, his hands resting on the back of your chair, his face too close to yours. “Because you were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. This isn’t personal, Y/N. Niklaus just has to learn that nothing he has can stay with him. That he will destroy everything he loves. Like he destroyed everything I cared for. My wife, my family, everything he could have had!”

“Get away from me…” You spat at him, while you leaned back as far as you could until Mikael stood up again.   
“And it feels very personal. I’m the one you’re tying up here, I’m the one whose relation you’re trying to get to break up and I’m the one who never did anything to you than start dating your son!”

“He’s not my son!”, he roared immediately after your last words. “He’s nothing but an intruder in this family and it is time the rest of his siblings start to realize that as well.” He smiled after that outburst, a wicked, mean smile under these circumstances.   
“But we’ll see how much effort he’ll go through to free you. Because I’m afraid for you he’s not going to do anything. You were a nice play thing as long as it lasted. He’ll find a new girl to profit from.”

You fell silent. You weren’t afraid for the last thing to happen… Klaus had never looked at anyone else since you had been together, but you didn’t know how happy he would be to search for you. You had been fighting the last time you saw each other. You had broken his trust. You were the cause that he had run away, just last night. Just before this happened.

Mikael just smiled when he looked at you.   
“But I do sincerely hope I’m wrong, girl. I do hope he will turn up here soon. Because I want to _take_ everything from him, like he did with me. If he doesn’t show, he’ll have ruined it himself and he’ll deny me the pleasure of doing it with my own hands.”

“Didn’t he already pay for that?” You didn’t even know if you wanted to get into that discussion, because you had the feeling Mikael wanted to avenge everything personally. You thought he was downright scary, like one of the characters from an old mafia movie or something like that. Fun to watch. A whole lot less fun when you played your own part in it.

“With those lousy five years he spent in prison? No, my dear. He did not pay for that. The time for him to pay back his debts has only just begun. If justice is not done in the courts, I will do it myself. I was totally willing to leave it to the judges, but if they don’t give more than five years in prison for ruining several lives, I’m done with them. I’ll be my own judge. And I will sentence him to an eternity of misery. As long as he shall live, he will have to pay. See? It’s nothing against you. If my son is smart, he’ll just accept what I want and you walk free.”

“He won’t. Even when it’s just to spite you.” Maybe not the smartest thing to say in a position like yours, but even with Klaus gone, you didn’t want Mikael to win. You’d beg Klaus to try again, to take you back, to forget about the lack of trust, only to make sure Mikael wouldn’t get what he want. You’d be willing to move out of town after that, no matter how far away it would be if it would get you away from this man. If Klaus would come. Which he wouldn’t, because he wouldn’t even notice you were gone.  
“And what if he doesn’t come…” Your voice was down, just like your head. You barely dared to look at him after that question.

“We’ll make him come. Somehow.” Mikael smirked. “What is it? Lost faith in your boyfriend? You doubt if he cares enough for you to come and find you.” He shook his head as if he felt sorry for you.   
“Maybe your fears are correct. After all, Niklaus ruins everything he gets his hands on. Why would it be any different with this grand love affair with you?”, he mocked.

“He does not!”, you immediately replied. “Just because you want to blame him for everything that ever went wrong in your house doesn’t mean that’s the truth! I ruined it… not him.”

Mikael suddenly started to smirk even more, pulled up a chair and sat down opposite you.   
“And now it’s getting interesting, darling? You ruined it? Do tell… what happened that caused trouble in paradise? And got you in trouble, because if what you say it’s true, you’re going to be here for a lot longer than we planned.”

“He’s not coming. I chased him away. I hadn’t been honest about something and that broke his trust. It’s my fault, not his.” You looked up again, not planning on telling Mikael details on what happened. He didn’t need to know you doubted his story, he didn’t need to know you were sticking by Klaus, no matter what. You were only more determined now you found out how twisted that man really was.   
“So you can let me go now. It’s over. He’s ruined. It just wasn’t you who did it, it was me.”

Mikael just shrugged it away.   
“Unfortunately for you, I don’t fall for sob stories like that. I need more prove than just words of someone dying to get out of an uncomfortable position. You’re staying.” He turned towards Kol who was still waiting in the corner of the room.  
“Do you have classes today? No? Good, you’re on watch. I have a meeting I have to attend. I’ll be back as soon as I can. You have her phone?”

Kol showed it to his father and you wished you had managed to get a message out to Damon. Or not… You didn’t want him involved in this. You had no idea how far Mikael would go and getting here would only get Damon in danger.

Mikael passed you one last time, gripping your hair pretty painfully and forcing you to look up at him.   
“I’ll see you later, darling. Behave, will you? You don’t want to see my son’s methods to make you behave. He’s still a bit… rash, but he’ll learn it in time.”

“I’ve noticed.”, you said curtly. The car ride here hadn’t been your favourite ride ever. This was going to be one hell of a day. Nothing would happen at all before the end of your work, that was something you were sure of. A few texts you wouldn’t answer wouldn’t get anyone in action. You even wondered if anyone would come into action today at all. You tried to find a comfortable position, but that was not going to happen.  
“Really… do I need to be tied up so tight? This is getting really uncomfortable, ok?”

Kol looked up from the book he was reading.  
“It’s not exactly a spa day, love. We don’t need you to be comfortable, we need you to stay put. Besides… we don’t need Nik to feel too good once he finally gets here, do we?”

“He’s not gonna come!”, you tried to convince him, but he just smiled and went back to his reading.

-

The hours had crept by. You lost all sense of time, you started to lose the feeling in your hand until you shifted again. The pins and needles didn’t feel much better, but you knew better than to protest again. You could feel the bruise on your leg forming after you had tried it the first time, about an hour after Mikael leaving. Kol’s boot was harder than you thought it would be. Next time it would be your bone he’d break, he promised and you preferred not to find out if he meant it. You had the feeling he did. You hadn’t seen Mikael since he left, even when he had called Kol a few times. He had gotten the same answer every time. No sign of Klaus yet. No action on your phone. No one who missed you yet. You heard a door opening and you looked at the entrance, only to see Mikael come in, looking at his watch.

“Six pm. You should be home by now, if today would have gone like any other day…” He reached out his hand to Kol who didn’t even need the question to know he had to hand over the phone.  
“No messages? None at all?” He looked down on you, sternly. “You’re not saying my son doesn’t leave you at least one message a day to get through your long day at work?”

You sighed.  
“I already told you that it’s over? Do you believe it now?”

Mikael sighed, turning around again.  
“We’ll just have to have a bit more patience before getting to other methods.” He pocketed your phone before sitting down.  
“In the mean time… why don’t we get to know each other? I mean… we’ll be here for a while.”

“I don’t think I need to get to know you. I’ve seen enough. I’d like to go home now. Without Klaus, I won’t be any use to you, so…” You cocked your head, hoping firm words would convince him. They sounded a bit more confident than you were feeling.  
“And if that’s not gonna happen, I’d like to have something to drink. Maybe even eat. It’s been a long day and I’m thirsty.”

“Well… I think we can arrange that…” Mikael disappeared from the room again and came back moments later with a bottle of water with a straw and a sandwich. He didn’t untie you, something you had hoped on, but he fed it to your personally.   
“I’ll have to instruct Kol the next time. You’re not here to be tortured, you’re just here to lure in what we want.”

You winced when you felt the bruise on your leg getting more painful, just like all of your muscles were already protesting against the uncomfortable position they were forced to stay in.  
“Maybe you should explain that to him. My leg hurts…”

“O no… I already know about that. That’s all on you. He should have fed you though. Ah…”, he suddenly called out. “Someone is trying to reach you. You’re not a hermit after all.” He took out your phone and looked at it with a bit of surprise.   
“Damon Salvatore? Who the hell is Damon Salvatore. Don’t tell me you know Guiseppe’s son...”

_Shit._ You should have known. The contact me once a day rule was still standing and the time you usually called was over.  
“A friend.”

“So you will be missed?”, Mikael asked while you shrugged. “Well… let’s see what he has to say.” The ringing had stopped and it had gone straight to voicemail. The voicemail Mikael was searching for now.

“No!!” You tried to stop him. You didn’t want Mikael to find out you had some kind of warning system. You just wanted him to think no one would miss you so he would let you go. So you could warn Klaus. So you could forget about this whole nightmare. But you were too late.

_“Y/N! Call me back within five minutes or I am going to ask around where you are! You didn’t forget about our deal, didn’t you? I don’t trust it, you’re an hour late! Get back to me, or I swear, I’m going to hurt someone to find you!”_

“Well, well, well… isn’t this interesting? It seems someone is looking for you after all. All we need to do is wait until he reaches the bastard who calls himself my son.”

Which was exactly what Damon was going to do.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Damon and Klaus start to worry about where Y/N is.

“Mikaelson! Don’t let me ask twice!”

Klaus didn’t know what had happened when he answered his phone, except that he heard a very angry, almost scared sounding Damon Salvatore.   
“Ask what? I can’t read your mind ok? I have no bloody clue what you’re talking about!” He couldn’t help but be a bit irritated. He wasn’t over the whole fact yet that you had had the files for all that time without telling him about it. And now, just when he needed the time to come to peace with that and find out what he wanted with his future, he had Damon on the phone.  
“And I’m not sure if I want to talk to you right now.”

“I don’t care what you want. You’ll just listen to me.” Damon didn’t seem to have much patience. “Why doesn’t your girlfriend call me as we agreed she would and why doesn’t she even answer her phone? I need to know she’s safe, ok? Your father makes me kind of nervous.”

Klaus was immediately awake. The fact that you hadn’t answered made him slightly nervous as well.   
“I… we broke up yesterday, Damon. I’m not at her place, I haven’t seen her since yesterday night, so I have no idea... “ He was worried though. He knew about the deal with Damon, he knew you hadn’t skipped one day yet and even when he could imagine you forgetting about it, he couldn’t imagine you wouldn’t answer when Damon would call.   
“I’m going to her flat now to check on her. Do you want to come as well?”

“Broke up? Do I even want to know? Wait… first things first… I do want to know, but not now. Meet me at her flat in ten minutes.” Damon immediately broke the connection, so Klaus decided to give your number one shot. Voicemail. Something wasn’t right.  
“Elijah?”, he called out to his brother where he had indeed found a place to stay, at least for a few nights. “I’m going to check on Y/N. She’s not responding to anything…”

Elijah came to the living room, looking concerned.   
“Wait. I’ll give you a ride. That’s not like her at all… And with everything you told me about the past week… I want to make sure she’s just drowning herself in alcohol over your rash decision to walk out on her.”

Klaus sighed.  
“I know you don’t agree with what I did, Elijah. I know you think we should have talked, but can we discuss that later? I… I don’t know what it is. This doesn’t feel good.”

“Come…”, Elijah simply said and walked out to his car.

Ten minutes later, the three men stood in front of your flat, in front of a closed door. Klaus hadn’t thrown back the keys in your face when he left, which was a good thing now, so he could still enter. Inside they just found an empty, dark apartment you had clearly left in a rush this morning.

“She hasn’t been back here after work…”, Damon said what they were all thinking while he fished out his phone and started to call someone. It didn’t take long.  
“She never even got to work this morning. I spoke to her colleague… apparently she had someone call in sick for her. Some guy.”

Klaus shook his head.  
“I don’t believe that… she wouldn’t do that. She’s used to do everything by herself, she would call in sick herself if she’s indeed sick. Besides… she doesn’t. I once tried to convince her to stay home when she was feverish and she still insisted on going. She wouldn’t do that just because she’s emotional. Something’s wrong… what if…” He looked at Elijah with shock in his eyes.

“Father.”, his older brother simply said. “This must have something to do with father…” Now it was his turn to make a phone call, but while he spoke to Mikael, his face grew more frustrated with the minute.   
“He doesn’t want to talk to me… He even goes that for to call me a traitor. I need to see him face to face. Maybe that will help.” He looked at the other two. “Will you join me?”

“No way that I’m backing out now.”, Damon immediately said. “No matter how much of an asshole he is, he’s not going to do something to Y/N. Not if I can help it.”

“I don’t know if you can help it, Damon…”, Klaus carefully said. “If Mikael is determined to do something…”

“Like landing you in prison?”, Damon answered without thinking, before he realized what he had said. Before he realized he might have believed more of your stories than he wanted to let out.   
“Wait… I didn’t mean it like that…”

“It didn’t sound like it.”, Klaus answered aggressively before Elijah stepped between them.

“Gentlemen… I don’t think this is the moment for a discussion like that. As much as I would want to know what you meant by that remark, I think we have more important matters to take care of. Finding Y/N should be on top of our priority list, not fight out petty squabbles.” He walked outside, holding open the door for the other two.   
“I suggest we go to Mikael’s home first. Maybe it is just as simple as finding him there.”

-

Of course it wasn’t. It never was as simple as that. The only one home was Rebekah and she hadn’t seen you in a while.  
“But father and Kol have been talking an awful lot lately. Mostly they fell silent when they saw me coming. I thought it was a guys thing, but maybe there was more to it.”

Klaus started to relax slightly when he noticed Mikael wasn’t present in the home he grew up in and started to leaf through papers that were laying on the counters, hoping to pick up a hint on where Mikael could be.   
“Think, Rebekah… did they ever mention a place or a house or something like that? I need to know, please…”

Damon was looking around with interest, not at all impressed by the scale of the house. Then again, he probably was used to it after growing up in a house like this.   
“You guys are sure there are no hiding places here?”

Rebekah shrugged.  
“Hiding places enough, but no places we don’t know about. We’ve been playing hide and seek here for years, so believe me, there’s no place I don’t know.” She smiled sickly at Elijah. “I usually won, remember?”

Elijah started laughing.  
“She has a point there… one time I think we already gave up playing because we just couldn’t find her. But that’s not the point here. Niklaus is right, Rebekah… do you remember anything?”

“The town house?”, she frowned? I think father sent Kol there once to get a few things, but he does that more often. But that’s the only thing I can think of…”

Elijah nodded.   
“Of course! How stupid of me not to think of that immediately! Probably because he acquired it after I moved out already…” He looked at Damon and Klaus. “I can’t guarantee anything, but I think we might find out where they are. Are you ready?”

Damon was already standing at the door.  
“I was born ready, Mikaelson. Come on. Let’s get my best friend out of your family’s dirty business.”

Klaus wanted to say something, but Elijah stopped him.  
“He’s right, Niklaus. We brought on this situation. You would be mad as well if the roles were reversed. And you owe her a big apology if father indeed has taken her. If you wouldn’t have made such a fuss over those files and just talked about it as an adult should do, we would have discovered this a whole lot earlier. Come along now. There is no time to waste.”

“I’m coming too. You hadn’t found out where to go without me.” Rebekah already had her coat on and walked to the door to join the guys.   
“I think you can need everyone you can get and this way we have a big majority. It’s just father and Kol, isn’t it? Finn is still stuck on the other side of the country. Probably making documents to prove that father couldn’t possibly have done this.”

“Bekah…”, Klaus started, but Rebekah was faster.

“Don’t Bekah me! I’m coming, end of discussion.”

“Fine…”, Elijah sighed. “We don’t have time for a long discussion now. But you stay back. Promise?”

“Why?”, she wanted to know. “Because I’m a girl? Because I have to let you three strong man solve everything?”

Elijah shook his head.   
“That’s not fair, Rebekah. I know what you’re worth. It’s because you’re the youngest. I don’t want you in danger. Call it the silly thoughts of your older brother, but please… keep yourself safe?”

“Can we please go?”, Damon asked impatiently. “Four persons still fit in one car so I don’t see why we have to make such a long discussion out of it. If she wants to go, fine… maybe she can bat her eyelashes and distract your father. I’m not picky on who’s helping ok? I just want Y/N to be safe.”

Klaus nodded.  
“He’s right.” He turned to Damon. “Don’t enjoy that too much because I doubt if you’ll hear it that often. But we need to go. Now.”


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Mikaelson siblings and Damon come to rescue Y/N from Mikael. It's just not as easy as they had hoped 
> 
> Warning: Gun violence in this chapter

It only took them a few minutes to get to the townhouse and even less time to find out they were indeed at the right place.   
“Father’s car…”, Rebekah pointed out. “They’re here.”

“Ok.” Elijah parked the car next to that car, turning around before getting out.   
“Let’s do this smart, ok? I’ll go in first… father doesn’t have any reasons to be mad at me. Klaus would only enrage him the moment he saw him. If Y/N is there, I will try to talk father into releasing her. You two…”, he pointed to Klaus and Damon.. “Come after me, but don’t show yourself until I don’t manage to get what we want by talking. I don’t think taunting father will get us what we want, which is Y/N. And you, little sister… I don’t think I can talk you into staying in the car? No? Ok… stay behind Niklaus and Damon. I hope it’ll be over in a few minutes…

Klaus didn’t like it very much… he was the one because of who this was all happening. But he was also afraid to face his father, afraid of what Mikael would say. Afraid of how he’d find you. Afraid of practically everything he would find in there. And he hated himself for it. He wanted to have the courage to storm in there and confront Mikael, but something in him just couldn’t do it. Something in him was just too afraid. So that part of him was glad of the plan Elijah had proposed. It meant he didn’t have to face Mikael. Yet.

Elijah left the car, waiting for the others to join him before he entered the townhouse. One door… through a kitchen that had recently been used where he gestured to the others to stay put and then through another door.

“Elijah…”, Klaus could hear the surprised voice of Mikael. “You were the last one I had expected here.

“Why? You wanted Niklaus here to do to him as you did to her? Let her go, father. I can’t believe you have sunk so low… hurting an innocent so you can get your revenge? I’m disappointed…”

There was some shuffling in the other room before Mikael answered.  
“She was warned, Elijah. She could have walked away. She should have, seeing that she was siding with the murderer of _your_ mother. She did not, with the full knowledge of what Klaus has done. Why would that make her any less innocent than him?”

At those words, Klaus wanted to barge in, only held back by Damon who grabbed his arm.   
“As much as I hate this, but I think your brother has more chance than any of us there, Klaus. Stay! For her!”, Damon hissed, even when everything in him wanted to run through that door, knock down Mikael and end this whole nightmare.

More shuffling, closer to the door this time, until that door opened, letting more light in. Damon and Klaus shrinked back from it. Mikaels appeared in the door opening, carrying a gun and smirking at the two.  
“Well, well, well… we have more visitors. Kol!”, he said sharply, turning back. Klaus and Damon heard Elijah yell out, and they both stepped forward towards the door where Mikael stepped aside to let them through.   
“Please… Join us.” The friendly tone contradicted the rest of the scene... the gun, the fight, the whole reason they were here. He gestured with his gun and Klaus and Damon obeyed, followed by Rebekah. Klaus seemed to have shrunk a few inches at the sight of his father and when he walked past the man, he bent his head, rather looking at the ground than at his father. When they came into the next room, Damon sucked in his breath. He didn’t exactly know what he had expected, but not this… You were tied to a chair, Kol standing immediately behind you, his gun aimed at your temple.

You trembled, feeling the cold steel against your head, seeing the people you loved most within Mikael’s immediate reach and you groaned. You had hoped it wouldn’t come to this. Seeing just Elijah had made you hope something could be done about all of this… He was the reasonable one, he was the one Mikael still wanted to talk to, but with Damon and Klaus?   
“Please, Mikael... “

The only thing your plea did was make him point his gun at you as well.  
“An entire family reunion… Even when I don’t remember inviting the three of you?” He slowly walked towards you, taking Kol’s place behind you where he could keep you under shot and still look the others in the eye.  
“You have nothing to say, boy?”, he addressed Klaus immediately.

“What can I say, father?”, he immediately answered, still using the title Mikael did not deserve anymore. He kept looking at the floor, still afraid of Mikael.  
“What do you want from me? Are you so set on taking everything I will ever get?” He acted as the little boy again, the same thing that happened the first time he faced Mikael immediately after he left prison.  
“Can’t you at least leave her out of it? She doesn’t deserve any of this…”

“Is this finally an admission I hear from you?”, Mikael asked him from behind you. “Is this finally your admission that you have murdered your mother? That you have ruined this family. That you have ruined _me_?”

“If that is what you need to hear to let her walk out of here unharmed, then yes…”, was all that Klaus said.

“No!”, you yelled. “You can’t do that…” Yes. You wanted out of here. There was nothing in the world that you wanted more than be out of this chair, than being able to move your hands again, than having the gun Mikael was still pressing against your temple gone from there. But you wouldn’t let Klaus humiliate himself before his father again. He was worth more than that.

“Keep quiet, girl.” Mikael pulled your hair. “Or I will be obligated to gag you. This is not about you. This is about this bastard and me. Which is also why I do not understand why Elijah and Rebekah and that mongrel of a Salvatore have joined us.” He acted like he saw Damon for the first time.   
“O yes, I have seen you and I know you, Salvatore. Your father and I were working together quite amiably, you know. You’re his eldest, aren’t you?”

Damon nodded, making himself taller than he was. “I’m not surprised. I didn’t like my father very much and you seem the same type.” He eyed the gun against your head suspiciously. “But I am here because you happen to threaten my best friend. I’m not leaving without her. I don’t have anything to do with your dirty family business, but if this is how you act, I am tempted to choose the side of your son. At least he never threatened Y/N.”

Mikael chuckled, a sound that made you shiver. He was scaring you, more than anything in the world had ever scared you before.  
“How heart wrenching… the power of pure friendship. If only you had someone like that, Niklaus… a pity that none of the friends you had before you disappeared into prison never came back to you. O yes, they have asked for you once or twice, just after your conviction. Marcel. Lucien. Even that little tramp Aurora had the guts to pass by the house once. They weren’t very interested in you anymore when I told them what had happened.”

“So that’s why no one ever wrote? Why no one ever came? You chased them all away?” Klaus finally looked up, but he was trying to avoid your look. He was just focused at the man he still called father. “You are the one who has ruined everything, father. Not me.”

“He still has me…”, a small voice from the back of the room came. Rebekah… you had barely noticed her yet, but now she stepped forward.   
“You took my brother from me, father… even when he has done a terrible thing. But that doesn’t mean we can’t start over again now. Please… stop all of this. Forget the past and look at the future. I don’t want to live in a broken family anymore.”

“You should be looking at him, Rebekah…”, Mikael immediately countered. “He is the one who took your mother from you. He is the one who placed himself out of this family. He is the one who broke us. Not me.”

“Is that so?”, Elijah suddenly interfered. “Did you ever give Niklaus a fair chance to prove that he might be your son, even when he isn’t your blood? Or did you condemn him immediately after you found out what our mother has done? Niklaus is not to blame for who his father is, father. He couldn’t help it!”

“Hold your tongue, boy…”, Mikael grumbled against Klaus’ older brother.

“Or what?”, Elijah wondered. “You’ll have me removed from this family? Like you had Klaus put away in prison because you found out he wasn’t your son? Y/N was right, wasn’t she? You killed mother, he did not...” Elijah paled when he said it, suddenly realizing he had been voicing the suspicions you had told him.

Klaus paled as well, finally looking at you.   
“What did…”

Mikael tightened his grip on your head, while Kol was stepping forward, curious like everyone what Elijah’s accusations meant. What you had to do with it.

“Father?”, Kol asked, “What are they talking about?”

“Nonsense, Kol. Do not believe them. Haven’t we talked about this? How Niklaus has influenced this woman. How she would try to play on the sentiments of your siblings? Niklaus is responsible for your mother’s death. Niklaus is responsible for the fact that you missed part of your childhood because she wasn’t there anymore. He is the guilty one, no one else.”

“I’m sorry…”, you mouthed to Klaus, wanting to say something, even when you didn’t dare to move with Mikael still threatening your life.

“As touching as all this family stuff is, I’d really appreciate it if you would let go of Y/N now, Mikaelson. She’s no part of this. If you want to have a fight with Klaus? Fine. Go for it. He’s not my best friend either. Believe me, I’ve begged her to dump him and go her own way. With reason, I think. If she would have done as I told her, she wouldn’t be sitting here.” Damon stepped forward, walking over to you and kneeling in front of you.   
“You okay?”, he asked, his blue eyes looking straight into yours. “Did they hurt you?”

You swallowed, trying not to cry. You hadn’t wanted him to be involved, but you were so glad he was here. Klaus had his father to worry about, Elijah and Rebekah were here because of his brother. Damon was here for you…   
“I just want this all to be over, Damon... “

“Leave, boy…”, Mikael bellowed at Damon while Kol stepped forward.

“No.”, Damon simply said while he gripped your shoulder, squeezing it to let you know he was still there.   
“You’ll have to make me leave. Or give me her. Untie her, let her walk out with me and I’ll be gone. End of discussion. You can have your family fight, I don’t care.”

“That is not going to happen, Salvatore. She mingled in our business. She clearly put ridiculous and poisonous thoughts into both Rebekah’s and Elijah’s heads. She’s involved, if you like it or not and she is the one who did that. Kol? Get him out.”

Kol seemed happy to have something to do and stepped forward, aiming his gun at Damon.  
“Out. Now.”, was all he said. The hand holding the gun slightly trembled, something Damon noticed as well.

“No. Why do you think I’d give you another answer than I have just given your father? Same rules apply. I go, she goes.” Damon turned towards Kol when the younger kid approached him and shook of the hand Kol was putting on his arm.  
“Don’t touch me.” His voice grew cold, almost dangerous. He stepped away from you, facing Kol this time, standing so close their foreheads were practically touching.   
“Everyone who knows me also knows it is a terribly bad idea to touch me without my permission. And give me that gun. Your father might approve of you holding one, but I most definitely not approve of having one pointed at me. Hand it over to me or drop it.”

You were looking at the two with suspense, afraid Damon would overstep boundaries that would really escalate everything. Even Mikael was distracted, you could feel by the loosening of his grip.

Everyone’s eyes were focussed on Damon and Kol. You heard Elijah try to catch Kol’s attention, you heard Rebekah plea with Damon to just step away because Kol had a gun, but neither of them seemed to hear it. You had no idea how long that face off took.

Suddenly Damon tried to punch Kol, something Kol easily avoided.

The Mikaelson boy stepped back, aiming the gun at Damon again. And suddenly there was a shot.

You had no idea the sound of a gunshot would be so loud. You had no idea that it smelled like this. You had no idea it would take your friend so long to fall on the ground. You had no idea screams could be this penetrating. Only when Mikael shook you, you realized you were the one screaming. You screamed Damon’s name, hoping he would hear you. Hoping he would stand up, grinning, telling you it was all a joke. You wanted to go to him, but you were still tied to the chair, even when you pulled the ropes harder than you ever pulled them before. Your wrists were hurting from the cuts they were making, but that pain didn’t matter. Damon couldn’t be hurt… you refused to even consider the possibility that he might be dead instead of hurt. You didn’t want to think about what it meant that he had come here for you.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Damon seems to be death and still Mikael doesn't want to give in. The Mikaelson siblings find a way to fight him.

“You killed him!” Someone else started screaming as well, just a bit more coordinated than you were. It was Rebekah, who was kneeling next to the still body of your friend. She had her finger in his neck, searching for a pulse she clearly couldn’t find.  
“Have you realized what you did, Kol? You killed him!”

Even Kol looked shocked at the man who was lying at the floor.  
“I didn’t mean… he can’t be dead! I wasn’t…” He didn’t finish his sentences. He only did something when Rebekah came at him, trying to punch her brother for killing Damon. He flung her out of the way and you saw her crash into the wall before she crumbled at the ground, moaning.

Somehow you were glad to hear it. That meant she wasn’t dead. Just like Damon wasn’t. Just like Damon couldn’t be.

“ENOUGH!”, someone roared. Elijah… you would never forget the shock on his face when he looked at the still form of Damon who was lying on the ground, blood slowly pooling out from under him.   
“Haven’t you done enough damage, Kol? Wasn’t it enough to shoot an unarmed man? Call an ambulance, little brother, or so help me God, I will never look at you again!”

“Don’t.”, Mikael interfered. “You don’t set the rules here, Elijah. I am still your father and no matter what, I will be the one to deal with Kol later, not you.”

“No.” Elijah suddenly stood up to Mikael, making himself taller than he was. He looked impressive. “I’ve done long enough what you want. I have believed your story about Niklaus for a long time, father. I could not imagine my own father lying to me about something that big. I have shunned my brother for it for all those years he has been in prison and needed someone to believe in him and for that I am sorry…” He glanced at Klaus who nodded, standing up a bit straighter now he knew his big brother was on his side.

“I still wished he would have told his side of the story.”, Elijah continued. Even Mikael seemed unable to interrupt him now. “But when I see right in front of me what you are capable of… who can blame him? I don’t know what you have said to him, how you have threatened him, but you are the wrong party here, father. Not Niklaus. Not Y/N, who was the first one who dared to challenge your truth. So this is how we are going to do it. You are going to untie Y/N, now. We are going to call an ambulance for both Rebekah and Damon and I hope by everything that I hold dear that it won’t be too late for that poor guy. Out of respect for my father, respect that I shouldn’t have anymore, but can’t shed completely, I will give you twenty four hours to come forward yourself and tell the complete truth before I will do it. Is that clear?”

“Look at you, growing up.”, Mikael mocked. “Maybe you’re forgetting I’m the one with the gun here. You are quick to believe a bunch of stories some stranger whispered in your ear to discredit me.”

“Look at you, father…”, Klaus finally said. “You call me the villain in this play, but there you stand… holding an innocent prisoner. An innocent whose only crime is that she dared to love me. You are the one holding the weapon, just like your accomplice. Aren’t you ashamed to drag your youngest son into this? We’re the villains in your story, but we haven’t shot someone just for being a friend. We haven’t hurt a family member for wanting to help someone. And before you start accusing me again… I did not kill mother. You know that and I know that as well. I have just been so afraid of you that I have never dared to contradict your story. I thought there must have been some truth in what you said. I thought that without me that never would have happened, but I can see it now. It was all you. And I’m done with it.”

“Please call someone for them… please…” No matter how proud you were of Klaus that he finally dared to stand up to his father, no matter how grateful you were to Elijah for standing up for his brother, you couldn’t keep your eyes of Damon… You wanted him to live and with every minute this took, with every minute Mikael might blow your brain out if someone did something he didn’t like, Damon’s chances of survival diminished. If those chances were still there.

“What do you want father?”, Elijah finally asked. “Shoot us all?  First Y/N, then Niklaus and eventually me? Rebekah? Silence us? This will come out… you have gone too far now.”

That made Mikael lower his gun and you breathed out in relief. The elder man looked at Kol.   
“Come on son. Let them solve this…”

Kol followed, still looking shocked at the body he had dropped. Elijah put a hand on his arm.   
“You don’t need to come with him. If you’re sorry, there must be some way to arrange this.”

But Kol shook away the hand, looking at Elijah with fiery eyes.   
“Traitor…”, he just spat out before following his father and disappearing. Elijah immediately ran to Rebekah, checking on his sister.   
“She’s alive! I’m calling it in right now…” He was already on his phone when Klaus started to untie you frantically and the moment your hands where loose, you dropped on your knees next to Damon, not daring to touch him out of fear that you would make the damage greater.   
“Please still be alive… Please still be alive…” You barely noticed the tears streaming down your face out of fear that he would be dead. That Rebekah had been right when she hadn’t felt a pulse. When Klaus squatted down behind you and put his arms around you, you leaned back into him.   
“He can’t be dead… he was just here for me. He told me to break it off, to get out of this family, but I couldn’t. And now… Please tell me this isn’t happening? Please?” You started to cry for real now and Klaus was just holding you, stroking your hair, being there.

“I wish I could say something to diminish your fear, love, but I can’t… I don’t know if he’s still alive… I just know he was set on doing this. He didn’t want to stay behind, not when we asked him to. He cared for you, Y/N. He really did…” He continued talking to you, even when you didn’t hear all the words. His voice was enough.

Not to calm you down… you wouldn’t calm down, not until you know what had happened with Damon, but to keep you sane. As sane as you could be after being tied up by some psychopathic monster for hours and seeing your best friend being shot before your eyes because he was there to rescue you. Finally you heard the sirens coming and paramedics suddenly flooded the room.

They looked at the chair and the ropes with a frown for a moment before kneeling next to Rebekah and Damon. First thing they did was check Damon’s pulse, but they looked even more worried after that. Carefully they turned him around, hooking him up on some kind of equipment, but that didn’t give a heartbeat either.  
“I’m so sorry… he’s gone…” The woman paramedic actually seemed sorry to have to say it.   
“Are you okay?”, she continued while she looked at your wrist.

You shook your head.   
“He’s dead? No, no, no, no… he can’t be dead. He can’t be! He had nothing to do with all this! He…”

“Shh…, darling…” Klaus was holding you more firmly while you were trying to get out of his arms.   
“Can you please check on her?”, he asked the paramedic who now knelt beside you, checking your wrists and putting some kind of stinging fluid on it.

“I’d like to check you out in the hospital, ok? Can you put her on the stretcher?”, she asked Klaus.

You were still mumbling that you didn’t want to, that you wanted to stay with Damon when you felt yourself lifted and put down on a stretcher where they fastened you with some bands. You were still holding Klaus’ hand, he refused to let go of you.

Elijah suddenly appeared as well.   
“Rebekah is going to be fine they’re taking you two to the hospital, I’ll stay here until the police comes and I’ll join you as soon as possible. Niklaus… do you ride with her?”

“I will not leave her, Elijah… please, be with us soon? We will need you…” Klaus was convinced that Elijah had to be the one staying behind. He was the only one who could give Mikael the twenty four hour deadline they had promised him, even when he did not deserve it.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle is over, which means there are wounds that have to be cared for and casualties to be mourned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a funeral in this chapter.

The ride in the ambulance went by in a blur. All you could see before you was the fight between Damon and Kol. All you could hear was the shot falling. All you could feel was the knot in your stomach tightening while Damon was bleeding out on the floor. Could you have done something? Could you have stopped it sooner so they could have called an ambulance sooner? Would that have done something or had he been dead immediately?

You just let them tend your wrists, give you an IV with fluids because apparently they thought you were dehydrated. You just let them give you an injection with whatever it was to calm you down when all you could do was cry because it felt like you killed your friend. Everything just became a bit clearer when you were back in a room, only one other bed out of the four that were standing there taken. By Rebekah. At least they had been so kind not to split you up. You had dozed a bit because of the medication they had given you and when you woke, Klaus was still sitting beside you, holding your hand. Next to the other bed was Elijah who turned around with a sad smile on his face when he heard you turn around.

“It is good to see you, Y/N.” He stood up, squeezing Rebekah’s hand before letting her go and sat down next to you.   
“Do you want to press charges? I’ve told the police you weren’t able to talk to them now, but they will be here tomorrow. You have all right to do so and if you choose to, I will stand behind you. I just…” He bit his lip. “He is still my father, Y/N. I want him to have the chance to see the error of his ways. Can you forgive me for granting him those twenty four hours?”

You nodded.   
“As long as you don’t blame me for pressing charges after that. I don’t want him to walk free. I wouldn’t dare to get out there if I knew he was still there. Or Kol…” You swallowed. “Did… did they say anything about Damon? Would he have had a chance if…”

“If we could have called in help earlier? Is that what’s bothering you?” Elijah shrugged. “I somehow wish the answer on that question was no. That our fighting didn’t take the precious minutes it could have taken to save his life, but I’m afraid no one will know for sure. He might have had a chance…”

That made you cry again. Slowly realization set in that Damon was indeed dead. That he wasn’t going to walk through that door into the hospital room, telling you off for being careless. That you weren’t going to have a drink with him when this all was over. That he wasn’t going to tease you senseless when you wanted to go home to Klaus. That he was just gone. For good.   
“Can I see him?”

“Later…”, Klaus told you. “His brother is with him now. They are arranging matters for the funeral… strangely enough we went to the same school, years ago, but we never saw each other again. He did  promise to keep me updated. He seemed pretty devastated about it, so I didn’t press too much.”

Stefan… you hadn’t even thought about him. You didn’t know him well, but you would have to face him later, knowing that without you, Damon would still be there. That without you, Stefan would still have a brother. That Damon would still be bothering his brother. You had heard all the stories, most of them from Damon’s side, but you knew that somewhere deep underneath that careless exterior of your friend, he loved his brother deeply.

“You want me to go with you when you go see him?”, Klaus still hadn’t left your side and he seemed to be able to read your mind.  
“I know we haven’t spoken about this before, but I’m so sorry love. I’m sorry about walking out on you because of that bloody file. I’m sorry for not giving you the opportunity to explain anything.” He knew what you had made of them. Elijah’s accusations towards Mikael had made that very, very clear.

You nodded.  
“I don’t know if I can even face him, Klaus. It’s my fault this happened. If he hadn’t come for me…”

“No!”, Klaus cut you off. “It is Kol’s fault he shot. It is Mikael’s fault we weren’t allowed to call in help. If it’s any of our faults, it is my fault to drag you into all of this. All Damon did was looking out for his friend and I am sorry it had to end this way. I will be in his debt forever. He was brave, he was loyal and we have to make sure that everyone will know that. He will not be forgotten. We owe him that.”

“Amen.”, Rebekah suddenly chimed in from the other bed. “He did what none of us dared to…”

Elijah walked back to her.  
“And then you decided to check on him. You beautiful fool… how’s your head doing?”

Rebekah shrugged.   
“Everything is sore, but I do like the pain meds they give me.” She smiled. “And the guy who brings them.”

That did bring a smile on your face. Life was going on. You were still with Klaus, Rebekah was looking at other guys.   
“You should point him out to me next time, ok? I want to check on him.”

That moment the door opened and a male nurse entered, ushering the two guys away.   
“I’m sorry gentlemen… visiting hours are over and the ladies here both need their rest. You can come back in a few hours.” He walked over to Rebekah.  
“You’re ready for your next dose of pain killers?”, he smiled while he put a syringe in the IV above her head, smiling at her a bit longer than he had to before coming to you.  
“Welcome back to the land of the living, ms. Y/L/N. You’ve been out for quite a while. How are you feeling?”

You checked his name tag, even when it was only to tease Rebekah with it later. _M. Donovan_.   
“I’m ok, mr. Donovan… Just tired and…” Sad. Ready to cry at every possible moment, but that was something you weren’t ready to share with everyone.

“Just call me Matt, ok? And you’ve had shock… I’ll leave the two of you to get some rest, the doctor will check up on you later this afternoon. Ms. Mikaelson will have to stay with us for a few days, I think you can go home pretty fast now you’ve woken up. Take care, ok?”

-

You had indeed been allowed to go home that night. Even when you didn’t want to return to your home right now. Mikael knew where you lived and while he was still on his twenty four hour grace period, it hadn’t felt safe to return there. Even after that, when you had told the story to the police and they were searching for him, you didn’t dare to go back and live there.

Elijah had been so kind to take you in for the time being. He had granted Mikael that grace, after all, or so he said. He owed you that much. He had already offered Klaus a place to stay, it wasn’t too much to ask for to house you as well for the time being.

A few days later you were putting on your nice dress. Klaus had gotten some of your clothes out of your own flat and went there once every two days to check if everything was still ok. Not today though. Today was the day you had to go and say goodbye to Damon. You didn’t know if you could do it. You didn’t know if you could look Stefan in the eye again. You had met him quickly just before you were released from the hospital and he had been just as close to breaking down as you were.

His girlfriend, a pretty brunette, had hugged you and whispered in your ear she’d keep an eye on Stefan. That you shouldn’t feel guilty. That she knew Damon would always do exactly what he wanted to, even if it would get him killed.

It had gotten him killed.

“Are you ready, love?” Klaus walked into your room, suited up. “Elijah is pulling up the car… we need to go in a minute or we will be late.”

You nodded, taking a deep breath. You had to get through today. You didn’t know how yet, but you had to get through it, no discussion possible. For Stefan. For you. For Damon… he deserved you to be there.  
“As ready as I’ll ever be…”, you answered, a sad smile on your face and you took the hand he was offering you. You nodded to Katherine who was of course going to be there as Elijah’s wife, even when you didn’t know yet what to think of her. The drive to the cemetery was too long and not long enough at the same time. How would you ever be able to do this? Say goodbye? You shouldn’t have to say goodbye yet… You expected him to pop up every minute with that signature grin of him, telling you it was all a bad joke. You’d hit him, telling him to stop, that he wasn’t funny and he would just laugh because he got you good this time. But that wasn’t going to happen. You stepped out of the car and let Klaus lead you inside where Stefan was already waiting for you.

“You want to see him?”, he asked and you could hear in his voice that he was trying to keep himself from crying just as much as you were doing.

You nodded, afraid to talk. Afraid that the both of you would end up breaking down in this hallway where the other guests could arrive any minute. You followed Stefan who seemed to understand how you were feeling to a separate room where a coffin was standing. Damon’s coffin. The coffin of a man that should be alive, celebrating, doing whatever he wanted, as he had done his entire life.

“Do you want me to leave?”

You had almost forgotten that Klaus was still there, but you shook your head, clinging to his hand.  
“No, please… don’t… I can’t do this alone…” You walked up to the coffin, looking down at the face you knew so well. You had never seen him this still.

This wasn’t Damon anymore. This was someone, something that looked like him. The life you had loved so much in him was gone. It was only now that it really hit you. He was really gone. He wouldn’t call you anymore to tell something funny. He wouldn’t be angry at Klaus because he thought he wasn’t good enough for you. He wouldn’t walk in on you when you were doing a drink all by yourself and join you.

Tears started to stream down your face again and after one last look at Damon, you turned around, burying yourself into Klaus’ chest.

“There, there, love… let it all out… it’s ok…” He was stroking your hair, talking to you. Nonsense, maybe, but nonsense that you needed. He didn’t start with platitudes on how brave Damon had been. That would have been totally out of place right now.

You felt a small hand on your shoulder and a soft voice telling you that you could take as long as you wanted… they weren’t going to start the service before you were there. Elena… that was her name… She must be the one getting Stefan through this, just like Klaus had to be the one pulling you through.

You did need a few minutes to pull yourself together and follow Klaus into the church where Elijah and Katherine had already found a place near the front. You joined them, smiling through your watery eyes at Elijah when you sat down between him and Klaus, both men holding your hands to support you.

You missed a whole lot of the service. You knew there were the standard speeches… one guy he still knew from high school… someone from college whose name you recognized as the guy being in jail. You felt Klaus tense slightly when he came forward, but he relaxed again when all this Enzo did was tell how good of a friend Damon had been. The reverend talked without you even recognizing the words… you didn’t even know Damon went to church, but this was probably how it was supposed to be.

And then Klaus stood up, took a piece of paper out of the pocket of his jacket and walked to the lectern. “I’m probably the last person to be standing here. I knew Damon for a few days and I can honestly say he wasn’t my biggest fan. I understood where he came from though. I could see he was a fantastic friend to one of the greatest people I know. Damon would probably scoff at me when he saw me here, but I owe this to him. I owe this to the man who stopped for nothing when he found out a friend of him could be in danger. I owe this to the man who was even more determined to fight when he learned that friend was indeed in danger. A danger he had warned her for. A danger he had tried relentlessly to protect her from. A danger that came anyway…”

You swallowed away your tears, knowing that Klaus had gone up there and say what you should have done. What you absolutely couldn’t today. You gripped Ellijah’s hand tighter and you felt how he put an arm around you, keeping you safe. Grounding you.

“When he learned the nature of that danger, Damon didn’t back out. On the contrary, he did what he had to do. He did what most of us would have never had the courage to do and it cost him his life. That is why I am standing here. What happened to Damon was no accident. I can not tell what exactly happened, because that is a matter for the police, but everyone needs to know that Damon died as the best friend one could ever had. As the best ally anyone could wish by his side. And as the best friend I can imagine.” Klaus turned towards the coffin.  
“I hope that you’re looking down at us now, mate. I hope they have your brand of drink wherever you are. I hope they know what a great guy they’ve won there. One that will be missed dearly here. And I hope that one day, if you’re still there, you will be able to forgive me for the part I have played in this. I will take care of her, I promise…”

You barely saw how he put a hand on Stefan’s shoulder when he passed him, how he came back to you, because you hadn’t been able to stop crying once he had addressed Damon directly. You hugged him when he sat back next to you, not caring anymore about who would see it. You had a right to mourn.  
“I should have been the one saying that…”, you sobbed and you felt how Klaus held you close.

“I know you couldn’t. No one can blame you for that, my love… but he deserved to have someone say it. That’s why I did it.” He turned back to the front of the church where Stefan was standing, his girlfriend looking at him with concern, as if she was afraid he could collapse every moment.

You barely noticed what he was saying. Something about what it meant to have a brother, about how they were somehow estranged but never able to live without each other. You could only look at the coffin, hoping it would be over before you wouldn’t be able to bear it anymore. Suddenly you felt how Klaus encouraged you to stand up and you followed his example, clinging on to him while everyone walked outside to the cemetery where after a few short words -everything had been said in the church already- Damon’s coffin was lowered into the ground. The dirt you threw on it felt like lead… like you buried him personally. It was over now. Damon was gone and there was nothing you could do about that. You evaded Stefan, not wanting to face him or anyone else of Damon’s close friends or relatives, even when he seemed to only have a few, after having Klaus practically admit it was when he rescued you that Damon had died.   
“Can we go home now?”, you whispered and Klaus nodded, looking at Elijah who understood what was going on and left to get the car. That was it. You would never see your friend again.


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikael and Kol are being arrested and Klaus and Y/N try to pick up their life

The fear only lasted a week or so before the message came that the police had found Mikael and Kol, hiding out at Finn’s place on the other side of the country. Maybe not the smartest option, but you had the feeling they hadn’t counted on something like this happening either. Mikael had become too arrogant, thinking he could get away with everything. You didn’t want to go and see them, afraid of what you’d do to both of them. Kol for shooting Damon, Mikael for withholding the help that might have saved your friend. That was something you were never going to be able to forgive them for. It wasn’t what they had done to you. That would pass. That feeling of insecurity... it would get better, or at least, that’s what you hoped. But they were never going to give you back your best friend.

You knew you had to face them sooner rather than later, because there was no way you were going to let them get away with killing Damon and kidnapping you. It was something that could wait though, Elijah had told you. Everyone would understand you were still mourning and in shock about what happened. He had filed a complaint on your behalf, everything else would come later. Talking helped… you were really grateful for Elijah for taking you in for a while, for sitting by your side if you just needed someone there to make you feel less afraid. For talking to you when Klaus was at work and Elijah wasn’t. For calling Rebekah to come over when you needed someone else to talk to. When Mikael was caught and you didn’t need to fear for your safety every moment of the day anymore, you finally decided it was time to go home again.  
“Klaus?”, you asked him while you were laying in his arms, something you immensely enjoyed ever since he had come and found you. It felt like the safest place on earth. And it was somehow a defiance to Mikael who had thought your relationship was reason enough to ruin every life he could get his hands on.

“Hmm?”, he answered, shifting so he could look you in the eye.

“If I go back home, will you come with me?” You wanted to go back to your own place, you just wanted Klaus even more than that. If he couldn’t bear it, you’d stay away and find something else… he was more important than any home. Even when the two of you had some matters to discuss.  
“I mean… we never even talked about you running out on me…”

“That’s because I’m still terribly ashamed for doing that, love… it got you in such a dangerous situation… I still do not understand how I could have thought that was a solution for a minor problem.” He had felt sorry… he had said something about it when he was sitting next to your hospital bed, but you had other matters on your mind back then.

“I get it. I should have told you the truth from the start… I just didn’t know you well enough back then when I got the files and after that… I just didn’t know how to ask. I am glad I was right though…” That was something you hadn’t heard from him personally yet, but you didn’t need to anymore…

“I should have told you. I never wanted to talk about what happened, it was just... I did blame myself for what happened. Without me, everything would have been fine. And I didn’t dare to stand up to that man. I’m not half as brave as you are, my love.” He sighed. “I can’t blame you for wanting to know more, especially with me being evasive about it.” He pressed a kiss on your forehead. “I guess we’re both to blame for what went wrong there. Just… Maybe we have to promise each other that it’s never going to happen again?”

You snuggled a bit closer.  
“I think I can make that promise… I don’t ever want to feel that miserable and guilty again as that night…”

“You weren’t the one who should feel like that. I…” He smiled, tracing patterns on your shoulder with his finger.  
“I don’t think we should be fighting about who is more guilty about what happened.”, he laughed. “We’ll have to look forward now, Y/N, not back. And yes, I would love to come home with you. I love Elijah, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t want to live off his charity for the rest of my live.” He smirked and got closer to you. “Besides… I’m not sure how he manages to keep the peace with Katherine, but it’s not exactly one of my strengths.”

You swatted him, laughing.  
“You better behave… she suddenly had two guests in her house. I guess that can work on someone’s nerves.” You did agree with Klaus though. No matter how easy it was to be around Elijah, how he didn’t only feel like a big brother to Klaus but also to you, you had your fair share of problems with Katherine as well.  
“But maybe we should tell them at breakfast tomorrow morning that we’ll move back on Saturday? I need to get back to work tomorrow… I’ve been gone for too long.”

“You don’t need…”, Klaus tried to say, but you shut him up with a kiss.

“I do need to go back. I need to pass the place where Kol cornered me one day and why not tomorrow? I refuse to live in fear for the rest of my life. They win anyway if that happens. And if I have a break down, I have an entire weekend to recover.”

Klaus shrugged.  
“Fine… if you say so. But I’m going with you. Just until the door. Don’t tell me I can’t… I’ll call my boss I’ll be half an hour later. The guy likes me, it’ll be fine.”

You nodded.  
“Then I’d like that… Makes me less afraid to go back there.”

-

“They were glad we’re going, weren’t they?”, you giggled while you leaned against Klaus in the subway, trying to ignore the nerves that were raging through you. The last time you rode this train, Kol was following you, even when you hadn’t noticed it yet. The last time you had gotten past the exit of the subway was just before the whole nightmare began. You knew it was different now. You knew Kol was safely behind bars and that you would give a full statement against him next week. A statement that would land him and Mikael in prison longer than Klaus had been. You would be safe, for years and years to come. There was no other outcome of this you were going to accept.

“Without a doubt.” Klaus smiled. “They said we’re welcome to stay as long as we like, but they do want their own house back. After all... They have seen I never leave again when I move in with someone who takes me in out of charity.”, he teased you.

You shrugged.

“I’m ok with that and you know that...” You looked up. “That’s my stop…”

He stood up, pulling you up as well.  
“Come on then… time to go.”

You slipped your hand in his, loving how safe it felt. Nothing happened when you walked out, nothing threatened you on your way to work. The streets looked as they always did, full of strangers, some looking at the ground or at their phone, some smiling at the two of you. There was still happiness in the world, even when it seemed to have disappeared for a while. You kissed Klaus goodbye in front of your office, earning a big grin from your colleague who arrived at the same time and walking in with her.

The next day Elijah and Katherine drove you home with the few bags of clothing and some other things you had managed to gather at your house, with the promise to come over for dinner next weekend, even when that was just a small compensation for what they had done for you. When they were gone, you looked at Klaus before you turned the key in the lock.  
“It’s ours now… you know that, don’t you?”

He nodded.  
“I had never thought I would be here for this long. I had never thought I’d find a home here. Because of a few letters. Have you ever considered how strange that is?”

You nodded. Fate was a strange thing… the whole fact that you had accidentally gotten Klaus as your correspondence partner had gotten you here. Still a bit bruised, but with a man by your side you would never want to miss. You pushed open the door and grabbed Klaus’ hand to walk in together with the man you wanted to share your life with. The first thing you saw when you walked in was a photo of Damon looking down at you, one that hadn’t been there before. You swallowed.  
“You did that?”

Klaus nodded.  
“I can take it down if it’s too much… I just… I like the idea that he’s still here, with us. Watching over you.” He smirked. “Telling me off if I’m doing something that isn’t good for you. Maybe I’ll need it again.”

You hugged him. Even when the sight of the photo almost brought you to tears, you loved to have him there. To talk with him, even when everyone would think you were weird for doing that. Everyone but Klaus.  
“It’s beautiful, Klaus. Thank you for doing that…what would I do without you now?” Even when you had been the one picking up the pieces of Klaus’ life at first, you had learned a lot from him as well. You had learned from him and his siblings what it was to have a family. You had learned how it was to trust someone. You had to learn how to talk about things, even when it was hard to do so. But most of all, you had learned how it was to love someone. No matter what everyone said, no matter what others thought. The two of you were all that mattered. You dragged him inside of the house, closing the door behind you and pulling him in for a kiss.  
“We’re together now. For as long as we want to.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for everyone who has managed to get to read until here... this was my first long fanfic I've ever written, with a subject that was chosen by the readers of a blog I'm writing for. I loved the challenge, even when it has taken me a very long time to finish it... Thank you for the support I've gotten and I hope you enjoyed reading it!!


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